A lesbian couple in Italy were denied the right to register their child unless the mother pretends to have sexual intercourse with a man.
Chiara Foglietta, who works as a councillor in Turin, gave birth to her son Niccolo Pietro last week, after undergoing artificial insemination in Denmark last year.
However, due to strict laws in Italy regarding fertility only heterosexual couples are allowed to procreate and be recognised as a legal family.
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It has put Foglietta, Nico and her partner Micaela Ghisleni in a tough position as local officials in Turin have suggested to Foglietta she should ‘declare’ she had intercourse with a man in order to register Nico. She has refused to lie on an official document, BBC News reports.
Artificial insemination has become the norm in EU member countries, however, Italy still refuses to accept it. They have consistently banned this and various other kinds of fertility treatments in the past.
On her Facebook Foglietta wrote (translated):
… the staff [at the public records office] tell me ‘you should declare that you had union (sexual intercourse) with a man, to get your boy registered. There is no formula allowing you to say that you had artificial insemination’.
She says in order to get her son ‘registered at the public records office’ she must ‘tell a lie’.
But it’s something she’s not prepared to do, claiming:
… every child has the right to know his or her own story, the combination of events that created him or her.
Despite receiving sperm from an anonymous donor, Foglietta says Niccolo was born because it was something both she and Ghisleni wanted, and because ‘he is our son’.
Only last year the Italian government passed a law which recognised the civil union of same-sex couples. However, it came at a price as their Senate removed a provision which allowed same-sex couples to adopt – along with other amenities.
A year before the bill was passed, the European Court of Human Rights had ruled Italy were violating human rights laws with its failure to provide sufficient legal protection for same-sex couples. LBGTQ+ groups in Italy saw the bill as a betrayal.
Flavio Romani, president of gay rights group Arcigay told Reuters:
This text once again does not take into consideration children who need definite laws and protection.
The law that has come out of all this is lacking its heart.
In a press statement regarding Chiara and Micaela’s registration of their son, Turin’s mayor Chiara Appendino said:
… the law currently does not provide for recognition of the sons and daughters of homosexual couples born in Italy.
However, she did tell Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera she was ‘Personally in favour’ of registering both women as the legal parent of Niccolo.
She said:
Personally I am in favour and willing to proceed with registration, but with this current legal vacuum the rights of the parents and children cannot be guaranteed.
The current fertility rate in Italy is among one the lowest in the EU. Last year the average number of children per women was said to be only 1.34, a significant drop compared in 2010’s 1.46, a national statistic provided by Istat.
Perhaps what is more shocking, and tragic, is last year the country saw 183,000 more deaths by birth.
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