Whose test-tube baby is Elisabetta anyway?

Rome - Elisabetta is only a week old, but already she is causing quite a stir. Conceived through in vitro fertilisation, she has acquired a family history of rare complexity. Depending which way you look at it, she either has two mothers or no mo ther atall. Her natural father has become her uncle, while her uncle has been registered as her father, writes Andrew Gumbel.

Confused? So is most of Italy, which has been passionately debating the ethics of her case. The Catholic Church has denounced what it sees as an unholy trade in human life bordering on incest, while one of the country's most eminent scientists has defended the family and the clinic which made the birth possible.

Jurists campaigning to fill Italy's legislative void on in vitro fertilisation described the case as a "complete mess".

Elisabetta's story began more than two years ago, when her parents went to see a fertility specialist in Rome. Pasquale Bilotta fertilised a number of eggs in vitro and froze them for storage.

Before he could take the process any further, however, Elisabetta's mother was killed in a car accident. A year went by, and then her father made an extraordinary suggestion: implanting a fertilised embryo in his sister.

"There and then my eyes popped out of my head," Dr Bilotta told journalists. "Then I thought about it . . . and it seemed to be no more than a way of continuing life after death. No, not incest, but a child adopted by a relative."

The sister and her husband agreed to be Elisabetta's official parents. The biological father has therefore been officially relegated to the role of uncle.

The Vatican reacted swiftly and sharply. "This is completely twisted," said Cardinal Ersilio Tonini. "Human beings are being treated like rabbits."

Carlo Flamigni, an in vitro specialist, said:"There was no money exchanged, no prostitution or sale of bodies. Elisabetta was born in an atmosphere giving her all the love she needs."

In Britain, frozen embryos cannot be implanted in a surrogate mother without the consent of both biological parents. In Elisabetta's case, the mother would have had to bequeath her to another.