Recent judgement of the italian judiciary about medical assisted procreation (MAP): is informed consent valid after parents separation?

Law No 40/2004 regulates in Italy the matter of medically assisted procreation (MAP). Recently, the Tribunal of Capua Vetere expressed its position on the subject of informed consent in a case of MAP. In the specific case, a couple entered the preliminary stages of the PMA procedures, carrying out the fertilization of the ovum and the embryo production. Afterwards, the couple separated and the man denied consent to the continuation of the MAP. The woman, willing to proceed with the implantation, the woman made an urgent judicial appeal, obtaining the judge’s permission to transfer the embryo to the uterus. This paper analyses the different bioethical positions on MAP’s informed consent. In fact, on the one hand, the paper highlight what is set out in Law 219/2017 which provides for the possibility of the patient to revoke at any time the consent to the treatment given. On the other hand, it should be noted that Law 40/2004, willing to protect the embryo, establishes the irrevocability of the position of parental consent after fertilization. The judgment in question seems to favour this latter position, placing itself in the protection of the cryopreserved embryo and recalling the principle of entrustment following the fertilization of the egg. Nevertheless, the matter is controversial a consistent amount of legal developments are expected to arise in the next future.