“You don’t become parents by contract. For these cases, the way is adoption»- Corriere.it

ROME
Minister Eugenia Roccella, what happened in Padua? The Public Prosecutor’s Office challenged the birth certificates of thirty-three children of two mothers, acts established starting from 2017, why wait for so much time?

«I do not enter into the merits of the decisions of the magistrates. However, the framework in which this story fits seems clear to me: in Italy one becomes a parent in only two ways, either by biological relationship or by adoption. The Cassation also reiterated it ».

What sentence are you talking about?

«Of the one in December 2022 where for same-parent couples the path of adoption is indicated in particular cases, a simplified adoption. That there is scrutiny by a court, when there is no natural bond, is an extra guarantee for children. Parenthood by contract does not exist in Italy».

In March, the prefect of Milan ordered Mayor Sala to no longer transcribe the certificates of children born to two mothers. It was Minister Piantedosi who sent a circular on the subject to all the prefects.

«Minister Piantedosi has called for everyone to respect the sentence of the Cassation. The government hasn’t changed the rules or regulations one iota. It was the mayors, by political choice, who carried out acts in contrast with that sentence, knowing that they could have been challenged ».

And what can same-parent couples do now?

“Follow the adoption procedure. And we need to be clear: after the latest rulings by the Council and the Cassation, adoption in particular cases places the child fully in the adoptive parent’s kinship network, thus assuring him or her grandparents, uncles, cousins ​​and full property rights, and does not even require the mandatory consent of the biological parent. We are talking about the stepchild adoption
, which was loudly requested a few years ago. Why isn’t it good now? It’s not a discriminatory procedure.”

What does he mean?

“That the stepchild adoption has always been followed by heterosexual couples, when the new partner of a widow with children or a single mother wants to become a father to her children and does not have a biological relationship with them».

The law in Italy allows heterologous fertilization to heterosexual couples and not to same-sex parents. Do you think it is appropriate to intervene on this difference?

«Law 40, which not surprisingly speaks of “assisted” procreation, was designed in line with a regulatory framework based on natural filiation. The meaning was to help those who could not have children due to infertility, without altering this approach. What we have to ask ourselves is something else».

What?

«If we want to maintain a system based on natural filiation or we want to arrive at filiation by contract. If we consider the child an autonomous person, the result of a relationship, or an adult’s right obtained through a contract.».

But the relationship applies to all couples.

“I don’t question love. That’s not the point. We have to decide whether the environmentalism that everyone invokes applies only to plants and animals or whether there is also a “human ecology”, referred to so many times by Pope Francis”.

When a birth certificate of a child born to two mothers is canceled, one of the mothers loses the right to be a parent. In the case of Padua it has already happened in a family with a six-year-old child: what to do?

«Again: there is the stepchild adoption».

But in the case of a family that has already been established, a mother loses parenthood and remains without it until adoption: what are the consequences?

«It is certainly an inconvenience and a displeasure for the adult, but I don’t think the children will notice the change which will probably last a few months. And in the meantime no one will exclude the person they have known as a parent from accompanying the child to school and from the normal activities ».

Italy has not signed the European certificate of filiation
.
«The French Senate did the same, criticizing the text and saying very clearly that it would open up to the surrogate uterus. We’re in good company.”

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