A bill passed on Wednesday extends the ban on surrogacy within Italy to include those traveling to countries such as the United States or Canada where the practice is legal.
Those who break the law face jail terms of up to two years and fines of up to €1m (£836,000).
The proposed law was first introduced by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy party and seeks to promote what it believes are traditional family values.
However, critics have argued that it makes it progressively harder for LGBTQ couples to become legal parents.
“If someone has a baby, they should be given a medal. Here instead they send you to prison … if you don’t have children in the traditional way,” said Franco Grillini, an LGBTQ rights activist in Italy. Reuters news agency.
“This is a monstrous law. No country in the world has anything like this.”
This is the strictest law at the European level and in all Western countries. The center-left opposition emphasizes that “it is a medieval, unconstitutional initiative, which aims to distract citizens from the real problems of the country.”
The minister in charge of family affairs, Eugenia Rocella, argued that she is of the opinion that “with this vote of the parliament, social and personal rights were not taken away. On the contrary, they became more clear and substantial.”
Officials of organizations in favor of surrogacy emphasize that “there is a legal problem because, in this case, in order for an Italian citizen to be tried, a double accusation would be needed: by the Italian justice system, but also by the foreign country to which he appealed for the so-called pregnancy by third parties”.
The law, which was passed last year by the lower house and effectively secured by Wednesday’s vote in the Senate, also criminalizes the work of Italian citizens employed as doctors, nurses and technicians in foreign fertility clinics that facilitate surrogacy.
In yet another conservative turn in Italy’s social policy, heterosexual parents can often skirt the law when returning to Italy with a child, same-sex couples, and men in particular, will be more visible and vulnerable to scrutiny.
Europe has long adopted a less receptive attitude toward surrogacy than the United States, where the practice is widely legal. Many European Union countries, including Germany and France, prohibit domestic surrogacy. In some of these countries, families using international surrogacy can sometimes face obstacles in registering their newborn children as citizens. Other countries – including Turkey – have administratively banned couples from seeking cross-border surrogacy, but have stopped short of passing comprehensive laws.
Road accident in Lamia: Collision of a motorcycle with a farm – The rider is dead [βίντεο]
Zelensky’s victory plan: These are the five main axes
Danai Pappa: Her discomfort with the recent statements of Lambros Lazaris – “I don’t know why he made these comments” [βίντεο]
MoE: The Budget showed a primary surplus of 8 billion euros in the 9 months of January-September
#Italy #Surrogacy #universal #crime #Fierce #reactions #activists
