Italy legally recognizes three parents for a 4-year-old child. The court decision causes strong debate
2026-05-13 11:50:48
TiranaPost
A historic Italian court ruling has legally recognized three parents for a 4-year-old child - two fathers and a mother - sparking widespread debate in Italy and prompting strong reactions from conservative Catholic groups.
The decision was reported by Italian media and confirmed by lawyer Pasqua Manfredi, legal representative of one of the child's fathers.
The child was born in Germany and lives there with a married couple, one of whom is the biological father. He was conceived with the help of a female friend of the couple, who is also known as the legal mother.
The non-biological father, who holds Italian-German citizenship, had previously adopted the child under German law and requested that this adoption be recognized in Italy. Initially, local Italian authorities rejected the request, suspecting that it was a case of surrogacy abroad - a practice that the conservative Italian government has criminalized.
However, the Court of Appeal in the Italian city of Bari overturned the previous decision, arguing that there was no evidence of a surrogacy agreement and that the case concerned three people who wanted to be legally recognized as the child's parents.
The decision is now final and puts Italy in line with Germany, officially recognizing a three-parent family structure.
"There was no secret surrogacy agreement here. This is a case where three people want to be the parents of this child and the court accepted that," Manfredi told Reuters.
The issue came back into the spotlight just as Italy marked the 10th anniversary of the legalization of same-sex partnerships.
On the other hand, the conservative Catholic organization Pro Vita & Famiglia reacted sharply to the decision, calling it a "subversion of family law" and warning of what it said were "social and ideological experiments" affecting minors.
