Disagreements about “Medically Assisted Procreation” depend on the fact that MAP is always related with the manipulation of life. This article outlines the positions taken by Italian and Belgian legislators, who after years of unregulated practice have taken possession of the topic in order to norms to regulate this activity. The process of framing such regulations needed first to look at bioethical reflection, and interrogate other disciplines with specific competence in this area, so as to illuminate it from various points of view. The evolution of bioethical reflection gives evidence of the guidelines that were followed by legislators. The differences between the Italian and Belgian laws reflect decisions to adopt different principles at the foundation of the respective laws. Since law serves not just in a prescriptive way, but first of all to give evidence of the basic values upon which society is built, the Italian and Belgian cases, considered from the point of view of the interpretative criteria used in the formulation of the law give evidence of the different ethical models to which the two legislatures made reference.
