Vatican wins to keep limits on assisted fertility treatments in Italy

[Rudey]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/inte...rendum.html?hp

Vatican Gets Victory in Italian Referendum

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 13, 2005
Filed at 1:22 p.m. ET

ROME (AP) -- Efforts to loosen Italy's assisted-fertility laws in a referendum failed Monday because low voter turnout invalidated the balloting -- a victory for the Vatican.

The Vatican had waged a fierce campaign to maintain the limitations currently envisioned in the law, including a ban on sperm and egg donation for couples undergoing assisted fertility treatment.

The Italian bishops' conference repeatedly called on voters to abstain, and Pope Benedict XVI endorsed the appeal. He contended that the efforts to overturn parts of the law posed threats to life and the family.

The current law limits the number of embryos that can be created to three, forbids sperm or egg donation and prohibits scientific research using embryos.

In a previous NYT article (perhaps related - http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~anthro/.../babybust.html):

Women in countries like Italy would by now be producing an average of fewer than 1.2 children, the lowest figure ever recorded among humans

In 20 years, at present birth rates, for every child under the age of 5 in Bologna there will be 25 people over the age of 50 -- and 10 of them will be older than 80.

If trends continue, by 2050, half of all residents of Italy will be over the age of 50. Half of the residents of Iraq will be under 25.

-Rudey