The Italian Act no. 40/2004 on reproductive technologies and informed consent procedure.

Abstract

The art: 4 of the Italian Act no. 40/2004 on reproductive technologies shows the informed consent as one of the fundamental principles – with the principle of the gradualism in the use of techniques – of all the Act. The art. 6 – the widest and richest of details - enters upon the informed consent and dwells upon a series of particular provisions.

The attention given to this profile of the matter is explainable in the light of the reflection, developed in recent ethical, deontological and legal debate about the foundation of the medical act. Beside the provisions of the Act and the "necessity state", it is undeniable that the patient’s informed consent is the first source of legitimation for a medical intervention.

In this sense, the article has its starting point in the consideration of the meaning of “the right to be informed” and from there it deals with the relationship between the physician and the patient about the reproductive technologies, in the light of the Act no. 40/2004.

The Act is founded on the principle of “birth destination”, as we can read in the art. 1, in which, qualifying the conceived as subject, holder of rights, it is supposed, obviously, his right to live.

In particular, the irrevocability of the consent, when the fertilization has been, leads the Authors to deal with two widely discussed issues: the relation between Act no. 40/2004 and the Act no. 194/1978 on the voluntary abortion and the issue of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis.