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  • Title: [Vasectomy: legal recognition in Italy, opposition to change in France].
    Author: Dourlen-rollier AM.
    Journal: Fertil Contracept Sex; 1988 Mar; 16(3):252-4. PubMed ID: 12282190.
    Abstract:
    Voluntary sterilization exclusively for contraceptive purposes is now legal in many countries of Asia, North America, and Europe. Since 1972 most European countries have taken action through statutes, codes of medical ethics, decrees, or court decisions to establish the legality of contraceptive sterilization. France and Italy, neighboring countries with Catholic majorities and a tradition of Roman law, have had great difficulties in recognizing the legality of vasectomy. Italy was 1 of the few countries of the world with a law specifically prohibiting voluntary sterilization. The 1930 law was abrogated by Parliament in 1978, but in 1982 a physician was prosecuted for performing 50 vasectomies on men who had sought the procedure and consented to it. Prosecution argued that sterilization was not decriminalized despite abrogation of the 1930 law, and that voluntary sterilization was prohibited by the article of the penal code dealing with voluntary assault and battery. The interpretation surprised experts in population law, since the physician had received permission from the regional government of Tuscany to perform the vasectomies. The physician won the case, lost it in the Court of Appeals in Florence, and was finally acquitted in the Court of Cassation after a 5-year legal struggle. The court declared explicitly that voluntary sterilization did not constitute a penal infraction, but it recommended legislation to establish a minimum age, assure informed consent, and protect the interests of the spouse. In France, the legality of sterilization for purely contraceptive purposes has not always been explicitly recognized by the courts. Some recent verdicts have held that sterilization without therapeutic motivations is illicit, and some local committees of medical ethics continue to argue that vasectomy is an illicit practice that should only be considered in the presence of precise medical indications. The position is contrary to a resolution of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe which France voted for in 1975, and a resolution of the National Council of the Order of Physicians in 1983. The resolution of the Order relaxed its earlier opposition to sterilization on the grounds that operative techniques had improved and that the chances for successful reversal had improved. It argued that sterilization should only be performed for very serious nonmedical reasons and required informed consent, spousal notification, and a waiting period of 2 months. The resolution has however been largely ignored. Although vasectomies are performed in numerous hospitals in France, their legal status remains ambiguous.
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