The Italian government led by Giorgia Meloni wants to toughen the penalties for surrogacy. This has been banned in the neighboring country since 2004. But now a law is being drafted, according to which couples who use surrogate mothers in other countries can also be prosecuted.
Surrogacy should be recognized as an “international crime”. “We will have to think about some form of amnesty for families with children born through surrogacy as soon as we get the new law through parliament,” Family Affairs Minister Eugenia Roccella said in a TV interview. The draft, which is currently pending, provides for prison sentences of up to two years and fines of up to €1 million for couples who use surrogacy abroad.
Meloni for traditional family values
Italian Prime Minister Meloni is an outspoken advocate of traditional family values. She sees herself as a fighter against a supposed ‘gender ideology’ and the ‘LGBT lobby’. “We want to end the trafficking of children born through surrogacy,” said Senate Vice President Maurizio Gasparri. The right-wing governing party Lega recently collected signatures for a petition for tougher penalties for surrogacy.
Criticism came, among others, from the president of the Rainbow Families, Alessia Crocini. She said it was offensive “to treat our children as (…) the result of illegality, because these children were born in a foreign country where surrogacy is legal.”
90 percent of Italians who choose surrogacy are heterosexual couples. LGBT couples who want children would have to go abroad because artificial insemination and adoption, as well as domestic surrogacy, are not allowed for them in Italy. Alternatively, heterosexual couples can adopt or use artificial insemination.
Source: Krone
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