Single-parent adoption is so rare in Italy it makes the national news
When a court in Naples ruled that a single woman could adopt a 12-year-old girl, it made national headlines
A woman made national headlines in Italy this week when a Naples court granted her a decree saying she was eligible to adopt an 11-year-old Belarusian girl, even though the woman isn’t married.
The woman, who declined to give her real name, had to petition the court in Naples because typically only couples that have been married for at least three years are allowed to adopt children under Italian law. The law provides for some narrow exceptions but requires would-be single parents to go through a lengthy process that starts with a judge issuing a parental fitness decree.
The first such decree was not granted until 2009, and even now the event is so rare that Tuesday’s decision became national news.
The woman in the case, who asked to go by the pseudonym of Antonia, explained how, for the past two years, she has provided a foster home for the girl for about four months out of the year. The two met through a nonprofit that aids children who have been exposed to radition due to the Chernobyl disaster, and the girl lives in Belarus the rest of the year.
“A strong bond has grown between us,” Antonia told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. “Last year, when I went to Belarus for her birthday and to see the place where she was raised, she asked me to adopt her and I felt it was the right thing.”
Italy’s 1983 adoption law only allows unmarried people to adopt in special cases where the child is orphaned and has a pre-existing relationship with the person seeking to adopt. The result is a type of limited adoption where the child gains a parent but doesn’t become part of the family succession. The aspiring single parent must also appear before a judge to obtain a decree stating his or her fitness to adopt.
The first time an unmarried woman successfully petitioned the court to adopt was in 2009 in Sardinia. The decision was the result of a 12-year legal battle, and by then the girl — who was also Belarusian — was no longer a minor.
In 2016, a woman from Ostia was allowed to adopt a child abroad, and since then others have been put on waiting lists for international adoption. The court decree is just the first step in a long process that can cost up to €20,000.
“The ban on adoption assumes that we single women cannot raise children well,” Antonia said. “Yet in Italy there are millions of divorced women who are alone and are still good mothers. All this while in other countries such as Belarus, single people are allowed to adopt.”
Her lawyer, Marcella De Nigris, added that the Italian law was outdated because in her experience single women are very motivated to raise these children. They often make better parents than married couples, she said, especially in the case of children who are older or have special needs.
As of 2016, Italy was the only EU country that prohibited single-parent adoption.
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