The Italian Supreme Court dealt with the interesting case of a doctor accused of anesthetizing a woman and removing from her six ova without her consent, in order to implant them in the uterus of one of his patients and gain an unfair profit.

The Italian judges, addressing for the first time the issue of the legal qualification of such facts, held the doctor guilty of the crime of robbery, arguing that the ova acquire the status of “mobile things” from the moment of their separation from the woman body. Therefore, ova can be the object of abduction and appropriation as in the crime of robbery.

For a detailed analysis of the judgement, please refer to the article published in Italian language by E. Pezzi, The Antinori Case: the Supreme Court Applies the Theory of "Mobilization" and Extends the Concept of "Movable Thing" ex art. 628 c.p. to Oocytes, in Sistema Penale, January 22, 2021.

To read the judgement, click here.