The referendum, scheduled for June 12–13, centers on some key provisions of the much disputed “Law 40,” which was approved in 2003 to regulate the field of reproductive technology.
The law bans any testing of embryos for research or experimental purposes, freezing embryos or embryo suppression. It forbids the use of stem cells from discarded embryos for scientific research as well as preimplantation diagnosis for preventing genetically transmitted diseases.
It also bans donor insemination, denies access to artificial reproductive techniques for single women, and rules that no more than three eggs may be fertilized in vitro and that they must be used simultaneously.
Four million signatures of protest have led to the referendum. Participants will be asked to vote “Yes” or “No” to four questions. A “Yes” vote would delete the law provisions relating to embryo research, the attribution of rights to the embryo, the three embryo limit, and the ban on egg or sperm donation.
In advance of the referendum, more than 100 scientists and researchers, including Nobel Laureates Rita Levi Montalcini and Renato Dulbecco, wrote a statement in which they urged citizens to vote “Yes to life and freedom of research, Yes to the rights and hopes of sick people, Yes to infertile couples and couples with genetic diseases, Yes to a lay state.”
However the Vatican has also played a key role in the debate, which has raged since April when interior minister Giuseppe Pisanu announced that a date for the referendum had been set. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the head of the Italian bishops’ conference and the Pope’s vicar for Rome, immediately asked Italians to abstain from voting.
The Vatican strengthened its position on Monday (May 31), when Pope Benedict XVI, taking his first plunge into Italian politics, praised the bishops for “enlightening the choices of Catholics and all citizens in the upcoming referendum.”
The Vatican intervention was not welcomed by all politicians. “This is an unprecedented attack. I’m not saying the Vatican cannot have its opinion on this issue, but they should not be allowed to hold electoral campaigns in a country that is supposed to be sovereign,” said Daniele Capezzone, head of Italy’s Radical Party and promoter of the referendum. Along with more than 30 scientists and researchers, Capezzone is on a hunger strike to protest against the lack of information on the referendum.
The decision to schedule the referendum on a date when school holidays have begun and when many Italians go away for summer vacations has also been criticized. More than 50% of eligible voters must participate for the referendum to be considered valid.
“We are confident that citizens will vote to change this law. But should we lose because of a low turnout, we will not stop our battle. It won’t take long before a scientific breakthrough in embryo research shows how wrong this law is. Science will sweep them up,” Capezzone told The Scientist.
Nino Guglielmino, head of the Hera Medical Centre, and a specialist in preimplantation genetic diagnosis, told The Scientist that focusing all the attention on the embryo can threaten the health of women. “I had to implant three embryos at once in women who could not bear them. The premature twin newborn died after a few weeks. It is a cruel law,” Guglielmino said.
Researchers are split over the referendum question, which could open up the way to embryo research. “They represent a very important and promising area of biological research, and we should not ignore them,” said oncologist and former health minister Umberto Veronesi.
But according to supporters of the present regulation, the entire debate reflects the prevalence of distorted information. “A lot of confusion has been created around stem cells,” wrote Angelo Vescovi, codirector of the Stem Cell Research Institute at San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, and colleagues from other universities, in a document that supports Law 40.
Links for this article:
R. Lorenzi, “Outrage over Italian law,” The Scientist, August 2, 2004. http://www.the-scientist.com/news/20040802/03
R. Lorenzi, “Italy approves embryo law,” The Scientist, December 12, 2003. http://www.the-scientist.com/news/20031212/04
Rita Levi-Montalcini http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1986/levi-montalcini-autobio.html
Renato Dulbecco http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1975/dulbecco-autobio.html
R. Gallagher, I. Oransky, “The Pope and science,” The Scientist, May 9, 2005. http://www.the-scientist.com/2005/5/9/6/1
