A Rome court on Friday approved
the first adoption of a child by a gay couple in Italy.
The girl is the biological child of one of two lesbians, a
professional couple.
It was the first Italian instance of stepchild adoption.
Italy does not recognize other civil rights of gay couples
living together, unlike the laws in some other countries.
The couple, who have been together for 10 years, conceived
their five-year-old daughter through an assisted fertility
procedure in an unspecified European location, their lawyer
Maria Antonia Pili said.
She said Italy's laws are based on finding what is best for
the child and the best possible family situation in any adoption
case.
This Rome court ruling follows a decision by the country's
high Cassation Court which, in January 2013, approved adoption
by gay couples where one partner is the parent of the child in
question so long as authorities determine there is no threat to
the child's development.
That high court ruling involved the 2011 case of a Muslim
immigrant couple in Brescia where the mother of a young son had
left her male partner for a lesbian relationship.
The boy's father argued that was an unhealthy arrangement
for the child, but the Cassation Court disagreed, saying that it
required much more proof of a detrimental environment than the
mere fact the mother was in a gay relationship.
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