Society: Italy bans surrogacy abroad

In Italy it will now also be forbidden to have children born to surrogate mothers abroad. The controversial regulation comes into force this Monday when it is published in the national legal gazette. More than 50 couples who cannot have children naturally have already announced that they will ignore the decision of the right-wing government of the Prime Minister. There is also criticism from the medical profession.

In Italy itself, the commercial carrying of children by foreign mothers has been banned since 2004 – as in Germany and other countries. However, with the majority of the right-wing coalition, which has been in power for two years, parliament passed a law last month that also provides for penalties for Italian couples who use women abroad for such services, in countries such as Ukraine or Georgia. In future this will result in up to two years in prison and a fine of up to one million euros.

About 250 cases per year in Italy

The right-wing three-party coalition justifies the ban by wanting to better protect the traditional family. From the perspective of critics, however, homosexual or infertile couples are deprived of the opportunity to have their own children. The medical community dismissed calls to report such cases to the Italian authorities as a call for “denunciation.”

In surrogacy, a woman carries a child for so-called intended parents and leaves it to them after the birth. In Germany, this is prohibited, as is mediation. In other countries, however, surrogacy is permitted. According to estimates, around 250 couples in Italy use the services of foreign surrogate mothers every year. The vast majority of these are heterosexual relationships.