The March 2021 Italian constitutional court ruling on surrogacy: a prelude to common European legislation for the sake of reproductive health?

Abstract

Purpose

Surrogacy is an arrangement by which a surrogate mother bears a child for another couple or person, and is often thought of as a form of ‘treatment’ for couples (or even individuals) with fertility or sterility issues. Still, surrogacy entails ethical issues related to gender, fundamental human rights, exploitation and inequality.

Materials and methods

Starting from the Italian state of affairs, the authors have set out to briefly expound upon such complexities, taking into account relevant jurisprudence on the subject, with a particular focus on inter-country surrogacy and second-parent adoption, which can themselves engender significant legal dilemmas. When residents of countries where surrogacy is banned travel abroad and hire a surrogate, that may lead to considerable legal hurdles as well.

Results

In Italy and elsewhere, the courts have all too often had to fill the vacuum left by the lack of targeted legislation. The Italian Constitutional Court has recently urged lawmakers to enact new legislation to uphold the minor’s best interests. In fact, while some countries recognise the surrogate as the legal parent, others ascribe parenthood to the commissioning parents. That discrepancy can lead to a ‘clash of laws’, resulting in children ending up stateless and unable to maintain an already established family relationship.

Conclusions

Just like fundamental protection of human rights and public health, the regulation of revolutionary technologies that change the very notion of reproduction, parenthood, and human identity needs to be governed by uniform standards, shared at least by nations which espouse common core values.

2021年3月意大利宪法法院关于代孕的裁决：为生殖健康而制定欧洲共同立法的前奏？ 摘要

目的：代孕是由代孕母亲为另一对夫妇或个人生育孩子, 通常认为是对有不孕不育问题的夫妇（甚至个人）的一种 "治疗 "形式。然而, 代孕也带来了与性别、基本人权、剥削和不平等相关的伦理问题。

材料和方法:从意大利的现状出发简要阐述这些复杂的问题, 同时参考关于这个问题的相关判例。特别是跨国代孕和第二父母收养会产生重大的法律困境。当禁止代孕的国家的居民到国外旅行并雇用代孕者时, 这也可能导致相当大的法律障碍。

结果:意大利和其他地方的法院常常需要填补因缺乏针对性的立法而导致的法律真空。意大利宪法法院最近已敦促立法以维护未成年人的最佳利益。事实上, 虽然一些国家承认代孕人为合法父母, 但其他国家则将父母身份归于委托父母。这种差异可能导致“法律冲突”, 导致儿童最终无国籍, 无法维持已经建立的家庭关系。

结论: 如同对人权和公共卫生的基本保护一样, 对生殖、父母身份和人类身份概念的革命性技术的监管需要至少由有共同核心价值观的国家共同统一管理。

Keywords:

• Inter-country surrogacy
• public health
• ECtR
• Italian constitutional court
• legal vacuum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).