Fertility's closed Italian frontier

Doctors who continue to provide the banned forms of fertility treatment face fines of up to 400,000 euros and a temporary suspension. Anyone who attempts to clone a human being faces up to 20 years in jail and is struck from the professional register of physicians.

Experts warn that the law raises the risk of multiple births,as women seeking fertility treatments must have three embryos - the maximum the law allows - implanted at the same time. In the past, couples have created frozen banks of embryos for future implant attempts. Now, the three-embryo ceiling means the same invasive treatment as before but with much low chances of success. According to experts, chances of successful fertility under the new law will drop from 30 percent to just 8 percent.

Others are worried about the precedent Italy's actions set for others. "We are afraid it will become a model for conservative Catholic countries," said Arne Sunde, the president of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology. "It is a disaster and it will inevitably lead to 'fertility tourism' as couples seek to get better treatment outside Italy."

Female politicians across the board have slammed the law. "There is no law like this anywhere else in Europe," said leftwing member of the European Parliament Emma Bonino. Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Italy's wartime fascist dictator, said: "Anyone who wants fertility treatment will travel across the border to get it. It will become a luxury for the rich."

Ms. Casadei, who is on her seventh attempt to have an assisted pregnancy, says the law may mean she has to give up.

"It costs about 7,000 euros for treatment abroad," she says. "At my age, the chances of it working are low. To go through all that with a foreign doctor in a foreign language and then fail is not worth it."

Italian doctors plan to set up clinics in neighboring countries. Marco Gergolet will open one in the fall just yards inside the Slovenian side of the frontier in Gorizia. He has received hundreds of requests from couples. "Our services will be 20 percent cheaper than in Italy," he says. "For us it is a great business opportunity."

At the same time, there are fears that bogus doctors will run black-market fertility businesses in Italy for those who cannot afford to travel.

Meanwhile, the government faces a dilemma: What to do with around 26,000 embryos already frozen in fertility clinics aroundthe country.

Mr. Sirchia has proposed that the embryos be transferred to a central "embryo house" in Milan "for safety." A date must be set by which the "owners" of the frozen embryos must use them. Those unclaimed - likely to be around 30 percent - may be put up for "adoption" despite the fact that this amounts to "donating," which the new law officially bans.

"I am sure lots of embryos will be thrown away," said Emilio Mordini, a bioethics expert at Rome's Psychoanalytic Institute for Social Research. "No one will talk about it. It will be done very quietly."

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