Turnout Low for Italy’s Embryo Research Vote

Italians voted Sunday in an emotionally charged referendum to repeal restrictions on fertility treatment and embryo research, but low turnout looked set to make the election invalid.

At the end of the first day of the two-day poll, only 18.7% of eligible voters had cast ballots. Barring a surge in turnout today, commentators said, the referendum will fail to reach the 50% turnout needed to make it valid.

The Roman Catholic Church and other groups that want the restrictions to remain called for a boycott of the referendum.

Italy was once known for its permissive stance on fertility treatments. In one case, a doctor helped a 62-year-old woman have a child in the 1990s.

But legislation last year made Italy’s statutes on fertility among Europe’s most conservative.

If the referendum were to be approved, a ban on egg and sperm donors would be lifted, embryo freezing and research would be permitted and there would be no limit on the number of eggs that could be fertilized during each attempt.

Since the restrictions were approved, the number of infertile Italian couples seeking help abroad has tripled.

Italy has one of Europe’s lowest birth rates, and critics say the law has only exacerbated the problem of an increasingly graying society.

Equal Opportunities Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo, who broke ranks with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, said the current law was an attack on women’s rights and needed to be changed to help Italian women have children.

But priests have used pulpits to rally churchgoers behind the slogan “Life cannot be put to a vote: Don’t vote.”