Italy: All children have the same rights and are entitled to a mother and father

Below are excerpts from the interview that Minister for Family, Natality and Equal Opportunities Eugenia Roccella gave on a broadcast on television RAI 3:

“In Italy, all children have the same rights, and with same-sex couples who resort to womb rental abroad, the biological father is recognized. The problem is that these couples sometimes do not accept the recognition of the biological father and ask that they both be registered as parents at the registry office. The Supreme Court has said that the way to go is adoption in special cases. The second parent can do this.” Then the Minister added: “It’s easy. Here there is no application for eligibility. It’s a process that provides more guarantees for the child.”

“What (Vice-President of the Chamber of Deputies) Rampelli said is the truth. I understand that the term ‘pass off’ is not correct because it evokes other things.” This is how Minister Roccella commented on the words of the Vice-President of the Chamber of Deputies who said today that same-sex couples “pass off” children whose recognition they ask for as their own children. “If you say at the registry office that both fathers are parents you are saying something that is not the truth,” said Roccella and reiterated: “the law says that you need a mother and a father for adoption.”

“A homosexual person can be a very good parent, but we have to see what model we want–we have a model that involves a mom and a dad. It is our intimate experience, what we all have experienced,” concluded Minister Roccella.

“Surrogacy is forbidden in Italy and we have to call it by its name: uterus for rent,” reiterated Roccella, explaining, “because it brings into focus the passage of money, we have to read surrogacy contracts, it opens a market for children for the first time in human history, there are fairs in the world, they even tried it in Milan,” she said.

“You choose the oocytes,” she explained, “in a market that even has racist connotations; you choose white women, and the oocytes of black women cost less. Then you choose the woman who lends her womb, who is usually beautiful and blond, and you also choose the religion. We will now make a law against womb rental, which is banned in Italy and its propaganda is also banned.”

She then continued, “In Europe there are even fairs for this. Today it can cost around 100,000 euros, and women in countries where surrogacy is legal get 15,000 to 20,000. It is a matter of deciding whether motherhood can be a market issue,” the Minister concluded.