Jesus is in Favor: Catholicism and Assisted Reproduction in Italy

ABSTRACT

While religion is part of the modernities of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), this has mainly been investigated in non-Western or non-Christian contexts. In this article, I argue that in contemporary Italy, Catholicism affects not only law- and policymaking processes but also (prospective) parents’ experiences of ART and donor conception in contradictory and unexpected ways. Officially, the Roman Church strongly opposes ART, but Catholic principles, affiliations, and rituals are mobilized in ways that contribute to legitimizing and making sense of ART as a means to create kinship and reproduce Italian national identity.

ITALIAN ABSTRACT

Mentre la religione fa parte di varie forme contemporanee di modernità espresse attraverso la procreazione medicalmente assistita (PMA), questa dimensione è stata indagata principalmente in contesti non-occidentali o non-cristiani. Nella realtà italiana contemporanea, il Cattolicesimo incide sui processi legislativi e sulle esperienze personali di PMA e di donazione di gameti, in forme contradittorie e inattese. Nonostante la posizione ufficiale della Chiesa Cattolica sia di strenua opposizione all’applicazione della PMA, principi, affiliazione e rituali di matrice cattolica vengono di fatto promossi e utilizzati in modi che attribuiscono significato alla PMA leggitimandola come mezzo per la creazione di parentela e la riproduzione di un’identità nazionale italiana.

KEYWORDS:

• Italy
• assisted reproductive technologies (ART)
• Catholicism
• donor conception
• kinship

PAROLE CHIAVI:

• Italia
• procreazione medicalmente assistita (PMA)
• Cattolicesimo
• donazione di gameti
• parentela

Acknowledgments

I thank Shrin Garmaroudi and Sybille Lustenberger who first encouraged and reviewed this article, and the anonymous reviewers of Medical Anthropology for their constructive comments. This article is based on a research project that was approved by the Ethical Committee of the European University Institute (EUI).

Notes

1. I refer to “clinical sperm donation treatment” to distinguish treatments which have taken place in a clinical setting from those happening in non-clinical contexts.

2. Law 40/2004 “Norme in materia di procreazione medicalmente assistita.”

3. See, for example, the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Couples who discover that they are sterile suffer greatly” (Pope John Paul II, 1992 [2374]).

4. A detailed legal definition of the concepito (conceived being) is missing.

5. At the time, the existing technique to cryopreserve and thaw eggs was not very successful in terms of fertilization and implantation rates.

6. Northern League for the Independence of Padania: a right-wing regionalist party established in 1989.

7. Initial difficulties in finding participants for my research project were easily overcome when I entered online communities.

8. Chiesafondaio is an invented term that echoes the term guerrafondaio, literally “warmonger,” and refers to someone who supports and promotes the Church.

Additional information

Funding

The research outcomes presented in this article are partially the result of (In)FERCIT project carried out within the Department of Social Anthropology and History at the University of the Aegean. (Ιn)FERCIT was co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Greek State. Part of the research has been financed by the Piscopia – Marie Curie Fellowship at the University of Padova and by the European University Institute.

Notes on contributors

Giulia Zanini

Giulia Zanini is a medical anthropologist and sociologist whose main interests include family and kinship, reproductive medicine, religion, gender, family and health policies and citizenship. She obtained her PhD from the European University Institute (EUI) and is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow within the ERC-funded project BAR2LEGAB.