The Italian debate on heterologous fertilization after the 2014 Constitutional Court ruling

the Italian Constitutional Court (ruling n. 162 of 2014) overruled the ban on heterologous fertilization contained in the Italian Law of 19 February 2004 n. 40 on medically assisted procreation (MAP) . This ruling in itself has been very heavily debated. Some deem it a victory, others, a defeat. To understand the current debate, the article recalls that the Italian law was part of a long series of attacks on Italian law regarding MAP. Actually, the hard opposition began when art. 1, which recognized the human embryo as a subject entitled to rights and art. 4, which banned heterologous fertilization (approved by an overwhelming majority), were approved.In particular, this paper pays its attention on the issue regarding the very remarkable right to know one's own origins. To this aim, it resumes shortly the most relevant positions drawn by the Italian Committee of Bioethics’ Opinion in favor of the recognition of the right to know one’s own biological parents, adding some more recent legal debate and documents confirming this right.