Paper long abstract:

Cross-border reproductive care ("reproductive tourism"), constitutes an increasing phenomenon in the whole world. People take advantage of the existence of different legislations in different countries and make strategic choices leading to transnational movements with the goal of fulfilling their procreative plans and overcome national legal restrictions on ART. In particular, free and easy movements across European countries make this possibility a real option for European citizens.

This paper will present the case of Italians seeking reproductive treatments which imply the reception of donated gametes and embryos outside national borders. After a brief introduction about Italian law on ART (law 40/ 2004), forbidding donation of reproductive material, the paper will expose the socio-economic issues linked to this phenomenon, the motives that lead Italian patients to choose specific countries and discuss how these choices and transnational experiences question their understandings of procreation and kinship and challenge the notion of "legitimate procreation" both at institutional and individual level.