Revista de Bioética y Derecho (Oct 2013)
The Italian case: reproductive medicine and conscientious objection
Abstract
The subject of this article is the Italian law in European context, regulating abortion and the conscientious objection by medical staff. The methodology is one developed by Jasanoff in Designs of Nature. After describing the historical, cultural and national policy, the article proceeds with the analysis of art. 9 of Law May 22, 1978 \ 194, which regulates conscientious objection on the part of medical personnel to the voluntary interruption of pregnancy. The issue of conscientious objection is framed also in the European context. In this regard, the analysis focuses on the document that the Social Health and Family Issues Committee presented to the European Parliamentary Assembly, entitled "Women's access to lawful medical care: the problem of unregulated use of conscientious objection." In this document , Italy is seen as an emblematic case of the problematic legal institution of conscientious objection, as confirmed by Table 28 of the Report 2012 of the Ministry of Health on the implementation of Law 194, according to which the percentage of objection exceeds 69%. There is a big focus on the comparison between the levels of involvement and action of different political, institutional, social and cultural entities: the role of the Italian State in producing standards and knowledge in terms of human reproductive medicine, as well as the role of ethics committees and epistemic national communities. The analysis focuses on the development of European and international law, on the contributions of the categories of professionals, on the opinions of bioethicists about the issue of conscientious objection to medical techniques relevant for bioethics and moral philosophy, such as the interruption of pregnancy. For this purpose, the article analysed the different perspectives expressed by professional associations, such as the League of not-objector gynecologists called LAIGA, and the committee of bioethicists, such as the National Bioethics Committee, which, in the document of 30 July 2012, entitled "Conscientious Objection and bioethics" declared to be favour of it.
Keywords
