The Senate approves the bill against ‘Gestation for others’ with 84 yes, 58 no and no abstentions even if carried out abroad by Italian citizens. The measure, which has FDI deputy Carolina Varchi as its first signatory and which had received the green light from the Chamber on 26 July 2023, thus becomes definitive.
Parliament modifies article 12, paragraph 6, of law no. 40 of 2004 (Regulations on medically assisted procreation), in order to extend the punishability of the two criminal cases (the marketing of gametes or embryos and surrogate motherhood) also to acts committed abroad by Italian citizens. The expected penalty is prison of up to two years and a fine of up to one million euros.
Meloni: “Life is not a commodity”
“With today’s final approval in the Senate, the bill that makes renting a womb a universal crime is finally law. A common sense rule against the commodification of the female body and children. Human life has no price and is not a commodity of exchange”, writes the Prime Minister on X.
The vote that leads to the new law comes after a day at Palazzo Madama characterized by moments of tension between the majority and the opposition. With the Chamber called to order several times by the presidents on duty, given the constant bickering between those in favor of the text and those against it.
The opposition, who voted against, speak of the text as “useless”, “unconstitutional”, “from the Middle Ages” and “against children and rainbow families”.
“A rule tainted by unreasonableness – thunders the deputy group leader of the Democratic Party, Anna Rossomando – and totally misaligned with the rulings of the Constitutional Court, the European Court of Human Rights and the United Civil Sections Court of Cassation”. M5S deputy group leader Alessandra Maiorino speaks of “vulgar speculation on the skin of children”, while for the dem Susanna Camusso, “the right wants the ethical State”, and for Ilaria Cucchi of Avs it is “an inhuman act against parents and children, which only fuels stigma and discrimination.”
“Gestation for others”
Gestation for others, commonly known as “womb for rent” or “surrogate motherhood”, is the form of assisted procreation in which the pregnancy is carried out by a person on behalf of others who cannot have children, due to condition or for medical reasons: for example heterosexual couples in which the woman is unable to carry on with a pregnancy (perhaps because her uterus has been removed due to cancer), or a male couple.
They resort to gestation for others especially heterosexual couples, and to a lesser extent homosexual couples. The technique can be commercial (when the pregnant woman receives compensation) or altruistic (when the woman only receives expense reimbursement): it is legal in dozens of countries around the world with very different rules.
In Italy the GPA is illegal. The prohibition is contained in article 12 of law 40 of 2004: the new law is made up of a single article, which modifies this very prohibition by adding the sentence “If the facts referred to in the previous period are committed abroad, the Italian citizen is punished according to Italian law”.
