Abandoned by the State, betrayed by the Church: Italian experiences of cross-border reproductive care

This paper investigates the case of Italians travelling abroad for fertility treatments as a reaction to the restrictive Italian law regulating medically assisted procreation. The acknowledgement of legal limitations provokes special feelings of abandonment while the decision to leave the country represents intentions that oppose institutional positions and results in an embodied dissent against them. The choice of destination considers legal, medical, economic, logistic and cultural matters and pertains to the re-elaboration of one’s own way of understanding reproduction and interpreting restrictive rules on the matter. This paper first presents the Italian law concerning assisted reproduction and the political, moral and cultural context in which this law has been approved, contested and partially modified. Then, the experiences of Italians undertaking cross-border reproductive care (CBRC) are analysed, focusing on feelings that people develop in the face of restrictive legislation and on the meaning that CBRC acquires in their reproductive stories. Finally, the criteria that lead people to take specific decisions concerning destinations are explored in order to show which kind of expectations and needs they have with regard to CBRC and which elements they deem important to consider their experience fulfilling and successful.This paper investigates the case of Italians travelling abroad for fertility treatments as a reaction to the restrictive Italian law regulating medically assisted procreation. The acknowledgement of legal limitations provokes special feelings of abandonment while the decision to leave the country represents intentions that oppose institutional positions and results in an embodied dissent against them. The choice of destination considers legal, medical, economic, logistic and cultural matters and pertains to the re-elaboration of one’s own way of understanding reproduction and interpreting restrictive rules on the matter. This paper first presents the Italian law concerning assisted reproduction and the political, moral and cultural context in which this law has been approved, contested and partially modified. Then, the experiences of Italians undertaking cross-border reproductive care (CBRC) are analysed, focusing on feelings that people develop in the face of restrictive legislation and on the meaning that CBRC acquires in their reproductive stories. Finally, the criteria that lead people to take specific decisions concerning destinations are explored in order to show which kind of expectations and needs they have with regard to CBRC and which elements they deem important to consider their experience fulfilling and successful.