The children were conceived through assisted fertility, which is only available to heterosexual couples in Italy.
In its appeal, the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office citied Constitutional Court ruling number 237 reaffirming “the principle that ‘at present’ our system excludes ‘that the parents of a child can be two people of the same sex’”.
The Milan civil court of first instance ruled in favour of the couples on June 23, rejecting the prosecutor’s request to annul the transcriptions on grounds another procedure involving removal of the child status is required.
However, in a separate ruling it upheld the prosecution request to annul the transcription into the Italian civil register of the foreign birth certificate of a child born to a male homosexual couple through gestational surrogacy, which is illegal in Italy, carried out abroad.
In their ruling the judges affirmed “that the child’s right to full recognition of the role played by the intended parent” in the “project aimed at his or her development, upbringing and education may be recognised through the adoption procedure in particular cases”.
Their ruling was in line with a Supreme Court of Cassation ruling handed down in December 2022 according to which adoption by the intended parent rather than the automatic transcription of legal parental status established abroad is in the best interests of the child.
The cases come after the government in March instructed city mayors to stop registering both members of a same-sex couple as the parents of a child.
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.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party also presented a bill to make surrogacy a “universal crime”, meaning that couples who come back from abroad with kids had by a surrogate would be liable to prosecution.
The bill is currently before parliament.
ANSA
