L'età potenzialmente fertile come requisito di accesso ale tecniche di PMA e (l'auspicato superamento de) il principio dell'"imitatio naturae"

This article examines the requirement of «potentially fertile age» as a condition for access to medically assisted reproduction techniques pursuant to Article 5 of Law No. 40 of 2004, highlighting its ideological basis in the implicit but pervasive principle of imitatio naturae. The analysis traces the jurisprudential and constitutional evolution of the regulation of ART, focusing on the unequal treatment that the age criterion produces between the members of the couple, disproportionately affecting women compared to men. The implications of socalled reproductive tourism on filiation relationships are then addressed, also in light of the most recent case law on surrogacy. The work concludes with a reflection on the historical and philosophical origins of the canon of imitatio naturae, proposing to replace it with a model of evidence-based law that anchors restrictions on access to ART to individualized clinical criteria, in accordance with the constitutional principles of equality, self-determination, and protection of the best interests of the child.