She will be able to continue to be the mother of the three children even if she no longer lives with her biological mother with whom he had a long relationship. It is indeed guaranteeing the interests of minors is a priority and therefore “affective continuity”, underlines the president of the Juvenile Court, Giuseppe Spadaro, who gave the green light to the adoption of the children. They may also have a double surname. Un case destined to teach. In the sentence the college places emphasis on the concept of family which “is independent of the success of the couple’s relationship”. “Like unions between heterosexual people – observes Spadaro – even those between same-sex people can dissolve, but the termination of this relationship certainly does not entail the interruption of the parent-child bond”.
Unchanged bond
The profound union between the three children and the non-biological mother remains unchanged, as in this case. In fact, for the three minors the woman is in all respects their mother, it supports them financially and is a point of reference also for their school and social life, like his ex-partner with whom he always maintained a close relationship, even after the end of the romantic relationship, sharing choices and commitments for the good of the children.
The story
But let’s rewind the tape of history and go back to 2004. That’s when the two women met and they started datingthen four years later the couple, driven by a strong desire to become parents and start a family, decided to undertake a medically assisted procreation path abroad. In 2010, their first child, now a teenager, was born and three years later their little brothers were born. The choice to become mothers had been well thought out and desired by both of them. Thus they had begun the new life of mothers, then in 2016 the two women had decided to give a legal form to their union and in May they had a civil union in common. But life sometimes takes different paths and the two women suddenly, after many years, decided to separate in 2023. Two of the three children went to live in the new house with their biological mother while the third remained at home with the woman’s ex-partner.
The request and the legal limits
It happens to many couples, but a non-biological parent often comes up against restrictions from both a legal and administrative point of view and a wall of rules and obstacles. Because of this the “intentional” mother, in agreement with her ex-partner, she turned to the lawyer Martina Gaiardo e he presented an application to the Minors Court of Trento for the possibility of adopting the three children. In principle, however, Adoption is permitted to spouses who have been married for at least three years And Not they must be separated. The legislation also regulates “special cases”, but has always been interpreted in a restrictive way, applicable to the case of abandoned children. However, there are cases of minors who are not in a state of abandonment and for whom adoption is advisable for better protection. And this is the case. The problem is that we always talk about a cohabiting couple, not a separated one. And this is the crux.
The established principle
The juvenile courtwhich in its ruling recalls a ruling of the Court of Cassation of 2016 and of the Court of Milan, starts from a single assumption: the interest of children which is to continue to have a parent-child relationship with both mothers. The ECtHR itself recalls that “in the context of family life the relationship between two people of the same sex cannot be excluded from family law” and consequently it is not “the aspirations of adults to have equal recognition by the legal system, but the rights of children”. An essential principle that cannot be called into question by the separation of the two mothers. “Indeed – as the Court underlines – the concept of family is independent of the success of the couple’s relationship.” The woman will therefore be able to adopt the three children, an act which effectively formalizes the bond that already exists between the woman and her children.
