The appeal against the ban on recognizing children born from rented wombs presented by some gay couples has been rejected. The judges: “There is adoption”
The European Court of Human Rights has rejected a series of appeals against Italy brought by same-sex couples asking for the country to be condemned because it does not allow birth certificates legally recognized abroad for children born using the surrogacy. “The Italian legal system prohibits, as contrary to public order, the transcription of the filiation relationship established by a foreign birth certificate between a child born from surrogate motherhood and the would-be parent”, however, “the High Court stated that the values protected by the prohibition in question do not exclude the possibility of recognizing the relationship of kinship through other instruments envisaged by the legal system, or such as adoption in special cases”.
The Strasbourg Court has grouped several cases into a single judgment. «The appellants – reads the Decision – saw in the refusal to recognize a family relationship between the intended parents and their children a violation of their right to respect for their private and family life. They also believe that the possibility of initiating an adoption procedure rather than recognizing the birth certificate of the children concerned cannot be considered suitable for remedying this violation”.
The Court also holds that «the interest of the minor cannot depend exclusively on the sexual orientation of the parents. On the other hand, it recalls that while the very principle of establishing or recognizing kinship leaves States with only a limited margin of discretion, this margin is greater as regards the means to be implemented to this end”. The European sentence refers to a sentence of the Constitutional Court which “also expressed the hope that the legislator will find a solution that takes into account all the rights and interests at stake, adapting the legislation in force to the need to protect children born from surrogacy, or by regulating adoption, in a way more consistent with the particularities of the situation in question”. Speaking to Peter Gomez’s “The Confession”, the Minister of the Family Eugenia Roccella proposed a “legal solution for children born so far”. A solution for when the new law that will make surrogacy a universal crime comes into force.
“We will have to think about a sort of amnesty once there is the new law for the prosecution of the rented uterus, even for those who do it abroad, given that fortunately it is already prohibited in Italy – said the exponent of the Meloni government – I think it is useful to introduce a legal solution that is not a way of circumventing the laws for children born up to now», he concludes. The reactions from the opposition are harsh. Alessandro Zan of the Democratic Party wrote on Twitter: «Roccella speaks of “amnesty” towards the children already born of rainbow families. But do you realize that you are referring to lives, to girls and boys in the flesh, and not to building abuses that need to be condoned? A law that recognizes rights is urgently needed, not an amnesty, not an amnesty”.
