Not All Children Are Well Accepted, Nor Are All Parents

Abstract

In Italy, reproductive freedom, and particularly the freedom to have children, if desired, is constrained not only by material circumstances, but also by legal norms and social policy regulations that define some children as not welcome and some categories of persons as not entitled to become parents. There are legal norms that exclude unmarried couples, same-sex couples and single persons from access to adoption and reproductive technologies and exclude same-sex couples, particularly male ones, from joint parenthood, thus also weakening their children’s rights and social protection. Social policy norms limit the access to child benefits for children of resident foreigners who are not born in Italy. And access to Italian citizenship for children born and/or educated in Italy is very difficult, differently from what happens to children of Italians living abroad.