Italy's Progressive Shift: Single Individuals Gain Right to Adopt

Italy's Constitutional Court permits single people to adopt foreign children, a significant change from the 40-year-old restriction to married couples. This decision highlights the need to align adoption laws with modern family dynamics and mirrors other European countries' policies. The court stresses children’s welfare over family composition.

Italy's Constitutional Court has made a historic ruling, allowing single individuals to adopt foreign children, thereby overturning a four-decade-old limitation that reserved adoption only for married couples. This decision marks a significant shift in Italy, a nation long anchored to traditional family views.

As applications for international adoptions dwindle, the court warns that excluding single individuals threatens a child's right to a stable and loving home. This ruling demands reforms in Italy's adoption legislation, reflecting societal changes, emphasized by Paolo Limonta, head of CIAI, an Italian international adoption association.

The ruling specifically addresses international adoptions, leaving domestic adoption laws untouched. However, it puts pressure on Giorgia Meloni's coalition government and its League party to revise existing laws in light of this decision and declining international adoption numbers.

(With inputs from agencies.)