The supreme Court of Cassation on
Wednesday upheld a lower court's decision to approve a request
for a lesbian to adopt her partner's biological daughter.
Stepchild adoptions for gay couples is a contentious issue
in Italy. A provision for stepchild adoptions was removed from a
recent law regulating civil unions, including same-sex ones,
after objections from conservative and Catholic lawmakers.
Such adoptions "are admissible as long as...they are in the
pre-eminent interests of the minor," the supreme court wrote in
the case concerning two Rome women who married in Spain.
Thanks to assisted fertility techniques the younger of the
two gave birth to a daughter who is now six years old.
They moved back to their home town, where the juvenile
court in August 2014 recognized the non-biological partner's
right to adopt her wife's daughter in what was the first legally
recognized stepchild adoption for a gay couple in Italy.
The ruling was upheld on appeal, but the prosecution
appealed to the Supreme Court on grounds that while a 1983 law
on special cases allows stepchild adoptions of children who are
abandoned, orphaned, or mistreated by their biological parent,
it should not be applied when the minor is in the custody of a
loving biological parent.
The Cassation ruling de facto establishes that the 1983 law
can be extended to cases in which the minor is not orphaned or
otherwise in distress, and it also de facto eliminates the
foster care prerequisite.
"Special cases adoptions are available for both single
people and common-law couples and an examination of the
requisites and conditions cannot - whether directly or
indirectly - be based on the applicant's sexual orientation and
consequently on the nature of the applicant's relationship with
his or her partner," the court wrote.
In this case the court privileged continuity of affections,
stability, and the fulfillment of duties of care, support and
education "analogous to parental ones" as being in the
pre-eminent interests of the child, it wrote.
The court also pointed out that same-sex couples are
allowed to adopt children in 14 signatories to the European
Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) - Austria, Belgium, Britain,
Denmark, France, Holland, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta,
Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden - while Croatia, Estonia,
Germany, and Slovenia allow stepchild adoptions for gays and
lesbians.
Cassation Court rulings set legal precedent in Italy.
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