CommentaryParenting post IVF: is age not so relevant after all?
Section snippets
Facts and the relevant law
Luigi DeAmbrosis (70) and his wife, Gabriella (57) conceived a child, Rosa, via assisted reproduction received abroad, following years of failed attempts to conceive. Under Article 1 of the Italian law on adoption (n. 184 of 1983), a child has a prima facie right to be raised by his or her own family of origin, a right bolstered by the state’s duty to identify all available means to help and support the family, enabling it to fulfil its duty towards the child (article 31(1), Italian
Discussion
Academic commentaries on the decision of the lower court in this case have been critical, chastising it variously as ‘harsh’ (Vasireddy and Bewley, 2013) and as wrongly attempting to confine issues that were ‘too complicated to encompass a priori… within sharp and narrow boundaries’ (Gulino et al., 2013). Above all, both academic and media reports of the case alike have focused on the relevance of the parents’ advanced age. The Court of Cassation’s sustained emphasis on the welfare of the child
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Adriana Boscagli (lawyer before the Court of Cassation, Studio Legale Boscagli, Rome) for providing us with the transcripts of the decisions of the two lower courts.
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