Rightwing PM Giorgia Meloni has demanded councils register only biological parents on birth certificates, leaving partners in legal limbo
Rightwing PM Giorgia Meloni has demanded councils register only biological parents on birth certificates, leaving partners in legal limbo
Your understanding is generally inaccurate.
A less spoken yet big topic in Italy is the “uterus for rent” (“utero in affitto”). While most media talks about the woman role, it actually goes both ways.
The explanation under the following spoiler is potentially NSFW, yet I will try to write it in the least sensitive way possible
This is an illegal practice in Italy.
It consists in a person paying another person from the opposite sex so a child can be born between the two, but raised by only the payer. Used in the case where the actual couple cannot make a child on their own (so, in the case of same-sex unions or general infertility). The person who got payed would then disappear.
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The block of the birth certificates is going against this practice.
The simple solution would be to regulate surrogacy which is normal. This also affects LGBTQ still.
I looked online, and looks like surrogacy is the actual term of this. Yes, surrogacy is illegal in Italy and of course it affects LGBTQ+ couples too.
Said in another comment that I don’t understand the problem when it’s regulated and done in a safe environment, instead of illegally with a massive list of risks both medically and legally.
My first question is how does this affect adopted children, and then second; why does the government not regulate surrogacy instead of just banning it.
Depends what do you mean with adopted. A children adopted due to abandonment or loss of parents will still have the original parents in the certificate.
If you mean adopted at birth after the practice or similars, their birth certificate is invalid as you have read. In this case a child not having a valid birth certificate means having an invalid Italian citizenship meaning a legal risk for the parents and unability for legal access for institutions and documents, like creating a passport. This is a massive problem as a partner in surrogacy might be unreachable as done illegally, and they would need to sign the new birth certificate and state that child as their own. It also means only the registered member of the actual couple will show as a parent, and there are a lot of context where both registered parents are needed for signing.
Recap:
Surrogacy has been banned in Italy in 2003 with a claim it promoted child-trafficking and prostitution. Currently, the law is defended by many right-wing parties (extremely powerful in Italy) claiming living without a biological mother or father is a violation of human rights for the child. At the moment, surrogacy is punished via a nasty fine (up to €1m) or jail time up to 2 years. The current government wants to expand this punishment also to Italian couple that had this practice outside of Italian soil. On a side note, same-sex marriage is also banned in Italy.
Note that surrogacy is illegal in many countries of Europe (sorry for the German page, I couldn’t find the image in English Wikipedia).
I see the block of the birth certificates as being ostensibly in support of the prohibition of this practice, but I can also very well see the underlying intent as being anti- same-sex-parenting.
Further, I don’t understand why the practice should be prohibited in the first place.
So I disagree with it, but on the other hand I also disagree with it. Am just a filthy foreigner though so other than this comment I’ll keep it to myself.
I also disagree with the prohibition of this practice. I just cannot see how it’s bad especially when done in appropriate ways, instead of illegally with a massive list of risks.
Yes that’s a very nice explanation but it doesn’t leave anything for people with no understanding of Italian culture anything to get unreasonably outraged about on the internet 😂
I wrote it in the most impartial way possible. I want discussion not echo chambers of what I think of it.
Yep I understood it completely because I live just across the border.
There are too many people who want to be angry without understanding the reason for it