A Rome family court has authorised
a fresh stepchild adoption, namely the adoption by one partner
in a same-sex union of the other partner's biological child,
sources said Monday.
The ruling concerns the three-year-old child of a gay
couple who was conceived and carried by a surrogate mother in
Canada for no fee.
The two fathers married in Canada and have travelled to the
North American country with the child to visit his mother.
The fathers have been in a stable relationship for 12 years
and their respective families are supportive of the child,
reports said.
Judge Melita Cavallo, who issued her verdict before
retiring in January, ruled that stepchild adoption was in the
child's best interests and amounted to one of the "special
cases" provided for by existing adoption laws.
The ruling is definitive.
Last month the Democratic Party (PD) of Premier Matteo
Renzi was forced to drop a controversial stepchild adoption
clause from a bill introducing civil unions for same-sex couples
due to opposition from conservative Catholics in his left-right
government coalition, as well as from within his own party.
The bill subsequently cleared the Senate at first reading
and must now be approved by the Lower House in identical form in
order to pass into law.
"This umpteenth verdict sounds like a reproof of
parliament," said Gabriele Piazzoni, the national secretary
Arcigay LGBT organization.
"One after the other the courts...are extending parenthood
within gay and lesbian couples with children, regularising
situations which would otherwise be harmful for the children
involved," he continued.
"And it is precisely the supreme interest of the minor that
our parliament failed to place at the centre when the civil
unions bill reached the Senate," Piazzoni added.
Earlier this month a Rome family court recognised the
'cross-adoption' of three children by two mothers in a lesbian
relationship.
The PD has said it will introduce stepchild adoption in a
separate reform of Italy's slow-moving and restrictive adoptions
system before the end of the current legislature.
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