"The ban on research on blastocysts also takes away our hope."
A Parkinson's patient, Maurizio Fravilli, writes this in an open letter and a video appeal addressed to the ministers of Health and Research, Orazio Schillaci and Annamaria Bernini.
This was announced by the Luca Coscioni Association.
Twenty years after the approval of Law 40 on Medically Assisted Procreation, the law still presents many "discriminatory" prohibitions that violate the right to health and some fundamental freedoms enshrined in our Constitution, states the association.
Among the bans still in force there is the one that "does not allow blastocysts (which are agglomerations of cells that are all the same before implantation and which are improperly defined by the law 40 as 'embryos') to be donated to research, which are not suitable for a pregnancy, in addition to the ban on access to medically assisted procreation (PMA) for single people and same-sex couples and on access to maternity surrogacy".
Maurizio Fravili, 68 years old and suffering from Parkinson's, wrote to Schillaci and Bernini to ask for the removal of the ban on donating blastocysts unsuitable for pregnancy to scientific research.
"I am Maurizio Fravili, I am 68 years old and in 2020 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's. The progression of this disease is unknown and, as we unfortunately know, incurable today. But there is hope for the future and it is scientific research - writes Maurizio - which could give answers to me and other patients, in the near, not distant, future. The cryopreserved embryos that are not suitable for pregnancy are currently stored at ART centers without any destination, they could also be used by science in Italy to improve not only mine, but many other lives. Today - he continues - I am asking you, in your capacity as Ministers first, but also as people, to use your powers to remove this illogical and unjustified ban. I ask you to bring to Parliament and all the competent offices my voice, standard-bearer of all the sick who today have no hope, sick who are invisible today and not only incurable".
"Twenty years have passed since the entry into force of law 40 on medically assisted procreation but there are still many bans in force which prevent many people from becoming parents and starting a family, and many others from benefiting from the progress of scientific research - declares Filomena Gallo, Lawyer and National Secretary of the Luca Coscioni Association - For this reason we ask the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, to intervene on some aspects which, in his functions, he could resolve without the intervention of Parliament, and that is to include in the LEA reform also pre-implantation diagnostics and to provide for a suitable reimbursement to gamete donors, as happens in the countries from which Italy imports gametes for heterologous purposes, without prejudice to the marketing ban. We also ask to modify the decree that governs the collection of data from the National Pma Registry to provide updated and disaggregated data for Pma cycles, to survey the number of blastocysts unsuitable for pregnancy and currently cryopreserved at medically assisted procreation centers and to know the fate of cryopreserved blastocysts and which are in a state of abandonment".
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