di Paolo Iagulli

Taking its cue from an interesting volume by Vittorio Possenti which cautions against regarding as human rights what are often only undue claims, this article discusses the pages in which the Italian philosopher vigorously critiques the «right to a child» in relation to (heterologous) artificial insemination and seeks to argue that a «right to procreate artificially» can definitely be configured from the perspective of the sociology of human rights. However, if the slide towards a libertarian ethics and eugenics feared by Possenti is to be prevented, this right must be elaborated as relative, that is to say, strictly conditioned by the concurrent rights of the unborn child and the therapeutic function of artificial insemination.