ITALY Trends and Developments Contributed by: Guglielmo Maisto, Marco Cerrato, Alessandro Bavila and Stefano Tellarini, Maisto e Associati
namely a particularly vulnerable position in the event of separation or the death of one parent. The Court also rejected the idea that “special-case adoption” under Article 44 (d) of the Adoption Law constitutes an adequate alternative. It found the adop - tion process procedurally complex, time-consuming, and incapable of offering the child immediate legal certainty. Although this decision does not lift the current ban on access to MAR for single women – which the Court continues to view as a matter of legislative discretion – nor does it address surrogacy (criminalised under Law No 169/2024), it nonetheless affirms a broader con - stitutional principle: where MAR is lawful, the child’s legal status must reflect the lived family reality from birth. Though addressing different areas of family law, both rulings are united by a consistent rationale: they reaf - firm the constitutional principle that all children – regardless of how they are conceived or the structure of their family – are entitled to equal protection and legal certainty.
The practical effects are significant. Civil registry offic - ers are now expected to recognise both same-sex parents on birth certificates when medically assisted reproduction has been carried out abroad with prop - er consent. This ensures that the child’s legal status reflects the parental intention from birth. Public prosecutors are no longer expected to chal - lenge such registrations solely on formal grounds related to biological parenthood. At the same time, single individuals are entitled to initi - ate the international adoption process without facing an automatic exclusion, accessing the same prelimi - nary assessment of suitability as other applicants.
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