Italian court sends restrictive reproduction law to higher court

ROME, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- A Rome lower court requested a review of the country's ban on screening for genetic diseases, part of the country's restrictive reproduction law, Monday.

The lower court asked that the ban be reviewed by the supreme Constitutional Court, citing a case involving a woman who carried an inherited gene for a form of muscular dystrophy and was denied a requested screening, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Monday.

The law, known as "Law 40," has been rejected by the European Court of Human Rights. It forbids screening embryos for abnormalities or genetic disorders, even for couples with histories of genetic disease.