interviews: Nina Vaclavikova
An Italian appeals court has, for the first time, recognized a child as having three legal parents — a biological mother and two fathers — in a decision that could mark a turning point in the country’s evolving definition of family.
The ruling, issued in January by the court of appeal in Bari and recently made final, concerns a four-year-old boy born in Germany to a woman who had agreed to co-parent with a longtime male couple.
The child was conceived naturally and legally acknowledged at birth by his biological mother and father. The father, who is married to an Italian-German man, later raised the boy together with his husband. In Germany, where same-sex adoption is permitted, the husband successfully adopted the child without severing the mother’s parental rights, creating a legally recognized three-parent family.
When the couple sought to register the German ruling in Italy, local authorities in Puglia refused, citing concerns that the arrangement might conceal surrogacy, which is illegal in both Italy and Germany.
The case eventually reached the Bari appeals court, where judges reviewed evidence from German social services confirming that no surrogacy agreement had taken place. The report described the child as being raised jointly by the two men while maintaining a close relationship with his mother and her other children.
In its decision, the court found that the German adoption was compatible with Italian law, citing a provision known as adozione in casi particolari, or adoption in special circumstances, which allows additional parental ties to be recognized without canceling existing biological ones.
Legal experts say the ruling could become a significant precedent in a country where debates over same-sex parenting and reproductive rights remain politically charged.
Pasqua Manfredi, the lawyer representing the couple and a member of the LGBT+ rights group Rete Lenford, called the judgment “a step forward” for what she described as “shared parenthood” arrangements grounded in transparency and the welfare of the child.
“A child can have multiple parental figures if this serves their best interests,” she said, adding that the decision demonstrated that Italian law does not prohibit co-parenting agreements among three adults when surrogacy is not involved.
In downtown Trieste, reactions appeared largely supportive. Residents interviewed by InTrieste described the ruling as a reflection of changing times, with many saying what matters most is that a child grows up in a loving and stable environment.
