Citizenship The Case of Assisted Reproduction in Italy

Abstract In 2004, the introduction of a restrictive law on assisted repro-duction in Italy sees the privileging of a conservative model of family rela-tions and a misogynist view of society by the political elite. This backlash politics excludes many individuals from full reproductive citizenship. In this regard what the Italian case allows us to see is the operation of a biopoli-tics which both governs and excludes. The 2004 Act excludes gay couples, single people and people who are carriers of genetically inherited condi-tions from access to assisted reproductive technologies. Such an exclusion-ary biopolitics has provoked a counter-politics of resistance against the leg-islation. This article examines the manner in which individuals have con-tested the legislation’s prohibitions, and, in so doing, looks at how this might constitute an example of what Nikolas Rose has termed an ethopoli-tics. The concept of ethopolitics allows us to visualize the potential of an ac-tive counter-politics of resistance for restoring reproductive citizenship to those deprived of it by legislative interventions of this nature