This article provides a reasonable background brief on the vote.

The number of infertile couples seeking help abroad has tripled since lawmakers in Roman Catholic Italy crossed party lines last year to approve one of Europe’s most restrictive laws on assisted reproduction. They wanted to crack down on what many saw as a medical Wild West where a 62-year-old woman had become a mother and a maverick doctor has bragged about cloning babies.

But far from ending the controversy the legislation has sparked the most heated moral debate since divorce and abortion were legalised in the 1970s and has prompted Pope Benedict, elected in April, to make his first foray into Italian politics. This weekend the standoff will come to a head with a four-part referendum that, if passed, would significantly change the law. The poll has shattered traditional political alliances and elicited emotional appeals from church pulpits.