Italy then got into controversy again The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on Thursday condemned the country’s judiciary for failing to recognize the ties of descent of a girl born to a surrogate mother in Ukraine, contacted by an Italian couple, which has kept him stateless even though he is four years old. After that, the country has to pay a fine for the girl for “moral damage” and another fine for “legal costs”.
The complaint comes from Sep 2021. The Strasbourg court received a complaint from a couple who had repeatedly been refused a copy of the birth certificate issued that year by their country’s judiciary and registry office They traveled to Ukraine in 2018 to sign a surrogacy contract. This practice is still banned in Italy to this day, and the girl was born there in August 2019. The little girl was conceived by a surrogate mother with LB gametes and an anonymous donor egg.
In itself, the European judges underline this Italy violated the little girl’s right to private and family life by not making a quick decision. The ECtHR considers that Rome should at least have recognized the paternity of the man who is the natural father, but recognizes that it was not mandatory to do the same for the woman, who could have resorted to the adoption formula build a family bond with the little one.
On the other hand andThe court recalls that Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights on the right to family life requires that although each country can decide whether or not to legalize surrogacy, a possibility must be offered to recognize the bond between a child born of one surrogate mother and the intended father if he is the biological father.
TDEH believes that Italian legislation has not exceeded its discretion in stating that this relationship can be established through adoption, for which Italy must pay EUR 15,000 for non-pecuniary damages for the girl whose name the intended parents have and EUR 9,536 for court costs.