Medically-assisted procreation and the rise of off-center, new types of “parenthood”: it is incumbent upon lawmakers to intervene

Medically-assisted procreation (MAP) has given rise to a crisis in the traditional family model, made up of a mother and a father, and led to the births of babies who are genetically and biologically unrelated to their legal parents. Italian legal statutes ban such practices, which are punishable by law; yet there is currently no legislation aimed at governing and regulating the legal registration of children born through such procedures abroad. Italian jurisprudence, on the other hand, has acknowledged the right to parenthood for homosexual couples, ruling that the children thus born be considered legally bound to their social parents, by virtue of the affection-based bond, rooted in harmony and listening, that has been formed within the family setting, however unconventional it may be. The paper’s author feels that an intervention from lawmakers is urgent and inescapable, in order to provide targeted legislation in such a sensitive realm.