Lo status del nato ad iniziativa di una coppia femminile: un passo in avanti nell'attuazione costituzionale, in attesa di ulteriori interventi

A little more than four years after its last two rulings on the recognition of children by intended parents in female and male same-sex couples, the Constitutional Court has returned to the issue, this time declaring Article 8 of Law No. 40 of 19 February 2004 (Provisions on Medically Assisted Procreation) unconstitutional insofar as it fails to provide that a child born in Italy to a woman who has undergone medically assisted procreation abroad, in accordance with the law applicable there, is also to be recognised as the child of the woman who had likewise given her prior consent to the use of such techniques and to the corresponding assumption of parental responsibility. The ruling removes a serious form of discrimination that has long affected children born to same-sex couples and, for this reason, deserves full endorsement. However, other significant issues remain to be addressed. The Court deliberately refrained from taking a position on them in its reasoning, but the debate will soon have to be resumed and taken forward.