“We were lucky enough to have children, conceive them, give birth to them, look after them,” the mother said.
“They were born within a marriage, a relationship that has lasted 14 years,” she added.
The couple have two children, a boy and a girl.
“Our children have always called us ‘mum’. We are already a family like any other. It is a responsibility we have taken on towards these children, born of two different mothers but who genetically are siblings,” the mother explained.
On Monday, the couple received notification that the local prosecutor had asked a court to rectify the birth certificate of the couple’s child – registered in August 2017 – through the cancellation of the name of the non-biological mother and rectification of the surname attributed to the daughter through the cancellation of that of the second mother.
The order was placed on grounds that it breached Italian law and also recent pronouncements of Italy’s supreme court.
Should the court uphold the request, the non-biological mother would have to adopt the child in order to have parental rights.
In March, the government drew criticism from the opposition and rights activists after it instructed city mayors to stop registering both members of a same-sex couple as the parents of a child via a procedure based on the transcription into Italian civic registers of the foreign birth certificates of children conceived via surrogacy, which is illegal in Italy, or assisted fertility, which is only available to heterosexual couples in Italy, citing a ruling by the Court of Cassation, Italy’s highest court.
This has led to concern that same-sex parent families will face multiple practical and legal problems, with only the member of the couple who is the biological parent of the child registered as its legal parent.
ANSA
