CEDH · PRESS;GENERAL;ENG — 27 juin 2012

.s3ABFC313 { font-size:10pt } .sE2DF52CA { margin-top:6pt; margin-bottom:18pt; text-align:center; font-size:14pt } .sD6845F38 { font-family:Arial; color:#0072bc } .s122D7F3F { margin-top:18pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .s7ED160F0 { text-decoration:none } .s3DC36BA9 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline; color:#0069d6 } .s653E6C45 { font-family:Arial; font-size:6.67pt; vertical-align:super; color:#0069d6 } .sD4B5322E { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify } .s6C736C62 { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; border-top:0.75pt solid #808080; padding-top:1pt; font-size:2pt } .s61E420C2 { font-family:Arial; font-variant:small-caps } .sCCDE293C { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:24pt; text-align:justify } .s7C0CA362 { margin-top:18pt; border:1.5pt solid #f8f8f8; clear:both } .s42665967 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:justify; padding-top:6pt; padding-right:6pt; padding-left:6pt; background-color:#f3f3f3 } .s79F89FD5 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; color:#0072bc } .s499EF5A9 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:justify; padding-right:6pt; padding-left:6pt; background-color:#f3f3f3 } .sEFC47909 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:justify; padding-right:6pt; padding-left:6pt; font-size:4pt; background-color:#f3f3f3 } .sA790A2B6 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; color:#4d4d4d } .s6211FF2F { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:justify; padding-right:6pt; padding-left:6pt; padding-bottom:6pt; background-color:#f3f3f3 } .sE94E7C11 { margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt } .sF5C1637F { margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:0pt } .sF6A12959 { width:33%; height:1px; text-align:left } .s4F8E2AF5 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:3pt; text-align:justify; font-size:8pt } .sCC018295 { font-family:Arial; font-size:5.33pt; vertical-align:super; color:#0069d6 } .s7BB14FF6 { margin-top:3pt; margin-bottom:3pt; text-align:justify; font-size:8pt } European Court examining first case concerning access to embryo screening in Italy for couple carrying genetic illness The European Court of Human Rights is examining - for the first time - a case concerning access to embryo screening in Italy for couples carrying a genetic illness. The case, Costa and Pavan v. Italy (application no. 54270/10), concerns an Italian couple, both carriers of a hereditary illness, cystic fibrosis [1] , who wish to avoid passing it on to their child. The applicants, Rosetta Costa and Walter Pavan, both Italian nationals, were born respectively in 1977 and 1975 and live in Cinquefrondi (Italy). They had a child on 9 September 2006 born with cystic fibrosis, which is when they became aware that they were both carriers of the disease, with a one in four chance of having a child born with the illness and a one in two chance that their child would be a carrier. They wanted to ensure that their second child would not have cystic fibrosis. The only option available to them in Italy was to have an abortion if pre-natal tests revealed that their foetus had a genetic illness. Ms Costa therefore had an abortion after such a test revealed that her foetus had cystic fibrosis in February 2010. The couple would like to have a child through in-vitro fertilisation so that the embryo could first be genetically screened - this is possible in at least 15 European countries: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. However, the applicable legislation in Italy does not allow it. It only allows for medically-assisted procreation for infertile couples or where the male partner has a viral disease which can be transmitted through sex, such as HIV and Hepatitis B and C. On 13 January 2010 , for the first time, the Salerno Court authorised a non-sterile couple of healthy carriers of muscular atrophy to use embryo screening. But that was a one-off decision. The applicants rely on Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights and on Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination), complaining that they suffered discrimination compared to infertile couples or those in which the man had a sexually-transmittable disease.   This press release is a document produced by the Registry. It does not bind the Court. Decisions, judgments and further information about the Court can be found on its Internet site . To receive the Court’s press releases, please subscribe to the Court’s RSS feeds . Press contacts [email protected] | tel: +33 3 90 21 42 08     Emma Hellyer (tel: + 33 3 90 21 42 15) Tracey Turner-Tretz (tel: + 33 3 88 41 35 30) Kristina Pencheva-Malinowski (tel: + 33 3 88 41 35 70) Céline Menu-Lange (tel: + 33 3 90 21 58 77) Frédéric Dolt (tel: + 33 3 90 21 53 39) Nina Salomon (tel: + 33 3 90 21 49 79) The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.   [1] Cystic fibrosis (also known as mucoviscidosis) is a common genetic disease which usually causes respiratory problems and can prove fatal.