Just as the US, the UK and Germany are drawing up guidelines to regulate human embryonic stem cell research, the Italian parliament has approved a controversial bill on fertility treatment in which embryo manipulation is also outlawed and human cloning carries a 20-year imprisonment term.

The bill bans heterologous fertilization procedures, which carry the penalty of fines up to IL300 million (US$ 170,000) and ten-year prison sentences for those who use a donor outside the heterosexual parents of the child. Couples undertaking in vitro fertilization treatment must be in the naturally fertile range, and no more than three embryos can be produced during the procedure.

The law marks the prevailing will of the Catholic Church in a long-running debate that also demands that the current abortion law be revised. It runs contrary to a set of proposals presented to the Parliament in 1996, which would have permitted some forms of embryo research and genetic testing.

Carlo Flamigni, head of obstetrics and an expert on artificial insemination, says that "it is unethical that the bill forbids any preimplantation diagnosis for genetic and other diseases." Many in the scientific community deplore the fact that the bill ignores the potential therapeutic utility of such research. Public statements by Italian Nobel Laureates Rita Levi-Montalcini and Renato Dulbecco, who have tried to emphasize the medical promise of embryonic stem cell cultivation, have fallen on deaf ears. The bill is awaiting approval by the senate.