Abstract
The historical background of family relationship is outlined from a legal point of view. Then the impact of new biotechnologies, with special regard to the in vitro fertilization, is deeply discussed. Finally the question of who is the owner of rights and liberties (a fundamental issue that is constantly on the constitutional agenda and that has nowadays acquired new intensity due to the impact of life sciences and biotechnologies) is considered. After the end of the patriarchal legal systems and the progressive recognition of individual rights, such as racial, sexual, religious, and anti-discrimination rights, the question about who the (biological) entity is that these rights and liberties belong to seemed to have been solved for ever. Yet the question has again emerged in the last few decades.
