Religious Barriers to the Diffusion of Same-sex Civil Unions in Italy

Ruiu, Gabriele; Gonano, Giovanna

doi:10.1007/s11113-020-09613-8

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…This is particularly true with regard to same-sex couples seeking to become parents; in Italy, for instance, although the legislature enacted a law on civil unions which was also meant for gay couples, second-parent adoption was removed from the bill and is still therefore not legally recognized. While unrelated to surrogacy, it shows how contentious and polarizing an issue same-sex parenting unfortunately still is in some countries, which makes it less likely to gain a favorable parliamentary majority, at least in the short to medium term [ 96 ]. Similarly, even in countries where surrogacy is legal for heterosexuals, gay couples or singles cannot resort to it in countries such as India, Russia, Nigeria and Thailand.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surrogacy and “Procreative Tourism”. What Does the Future Hold from the Ethical and Legal Perspectives?

et al. 2021

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Background and objectives: To explore the ethical and legal complexities arising from the controversial issue of surrogacy, particularly in terms of how they affect fundamental rights of children and parents. Surrogacy is a form of medically-assisted procreation (MAP) in which a woman “lends” her uterus to carry out a pregnancy on behalf of a third party. There are pathological conditions, such as uterine agenesis or hysterectomy outcomes, that may prevent prospective mothers from becoming pregnant or carry a pregnancy to term; such patients may consider finding a surrogate mother. Many issues relating to surrogacy remain unresolved, with significant disagreements and controversy within the scientific community and public opinion. There are several factors called into play and multiple parties and stakeholders whose objectives and interests need to somehow be reconciled. First and foremost, the authors contend, it is essential to prioritize and uphold the rights of children born through surrogacy and heterologous MAP. Materials and methods: To draw a parallel between Italy and the rest of the world, the legislation in force in twelve European countries was analyzed, eleven of which are part of the European Union (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Lithuania, Czech Republic and Portugal) and three non-members of the same (United Kingdom, Ukraine and Russia), as well as that of twelve non-European countries considered exemplary (United States, Canada, Australia, India, China, Thailand, Israel, Nigeria and South Africa); in particular, legislative sources and legal databases were drawn upon, in order to draw a comparison with the Italian legislation currently in force and map out the evolution of the Italian case law on the basis of the judgments issued by Italian courts, including the Constitutional and Supreme Courts and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR); search engines such as PubMed and Google Scholar were also used, by entering the keywords “surrogacy” and “surrogate motherhood”, to find scientific articles concerning assisted reproduction techniques with a close focus on surrogacy. Results: SM is a prohibited and sanctioned practice in Italy; on the other hand, it is allowed in other countries of the world, which leads Italian couples, or couples from other countries where it is banned, to often contact foreign centers in order to undertake a MAP pathway which includes surrogacy; in addition, challenges may arise from the legal status of children born through surrogacy abroad: to date, in most countries, there is no specific legislation aimed at regulating their legal registration and parental status. Conclusion: With reference to the Italian context, despite the scientific and legal evolution on the subject, a legislative intervention aimed at filling the regulatory gaps in terms of heterologous MAP and surrogacy has not yet come to fruition. Considering the possibility of “fertility tourism”, i.e., traveling to countries where the practice is legal, as indeed already happens in a relatively significant number of cases, the current legislation, although integrated by the legal interpretation, does not appear to be effective in avoiding the phenomenon of procreative tourism. Moreover, to overcome some contradictions currently present between law 40 and law 194, it would be appropriate to outline an organic and exhaustive framework of rules, which should take into account the multiplicity of interests at stake, in keeping with a fair and sustainable balance when regulating such practices.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surrogacy and “Procreative Tourism”. What Does the Future Hold from the Ethical and Legal Perspectives?

et al. 2021

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“…In a world- wide setting, however, Haider-Markel (2001) showed that conservative religious groups significantly influenced responses to several sensitive issues, such as same-sex marriage prohibitions. In addition, religion hampered the adoption of same-sex civil partnerships in Italy, according to Ruiu and Gonano’s (2020) findings. Nevertheless, due to data constraints, this study will only explore predominant religion of each nation in order to determine if the religious factor supports or prevents the diffusion of gender mainstreaming policy.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does National Culture Influence Global Policy Diffusion: Evidence From Gender Mainstreaming Policy Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)

2023

Administration & Society

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This study aims to pinpoint the combinations of national cultural traits that influence the global diffusion of gender mainstreaming. First, we have updated national culture indices using factor analysis. Then, we employ fuzzy-set QCA to identify potential configurations in line with theories of cultural contingency. A sample of 41 countries is examined. We find that the current diffusion requires a non-Islamic environment, while a high level of autonomy, weak uncertainty avoidance, and gender quotas are sufficient. This study serves as the starting point for further research on the relationship between national culture and the diffusion of gender mainstreaming policy.

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“…Specifically, a coalition of LGBT organisations, feminist associations, civil rights associations (such as Amnesty International) and trade unions (CGIL, CISL) started to actively advocate for the introduction of SSU legislation. Moreover, the two legal advocacy associations for the advancement of LGBT rights -Rete Lanford, founded in 2007, and Associazione Radicale Certi Diritti, founded in 2008jointly launched the campaign Affermazione Civile and started a litigation strategy to eliminate discrimination against lesbian, gay and bisexual people before domestic and international courts (Guaiana and Seymour 2019;Ruiu and Gonano 2020). As a result, in 2015 the European Court of Human Rights condemned Italy for not recognising the rights of sexual minorities, 4 and this acted as external pressure on Italy to intervene on SSU (as previously occurred in other European countries, Roseneil et al 2013).…”

Section: The 2016 Cirinnà Lawmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Eventually in 2016 Italy adopted civil union legislation (known as the Cirinnà law after the name of the MP who proposed it), which accorded most of the same rights as marriage but excluded adoption rights. As Ruiu andGonano (2020, 1192) observed: 'This law represented a compromise between Catholic conservatism and left-wing progressivism'. Nevertheless, the Cirinnà law marked a significant policy change for Italian Catholic society, with its conservative and heteronormative views on sexuality and family relations (Lasio and Serri 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Somewhere over the rainbow: Italy and the regulation of same-sex unions

Donà

2021

Mod. Italy

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While almost all European democracies from the 1980s started to accord legal recognition to same-sex couples, Italy was, in 2016, the last West European country to adopt a regulation, after a tortuous path. Why was Italy such a latecomer? What kind of barriers were encountered by the legislative process? What were the factors behind the policy change? To answer these questions, this article first discusses current morality policymaking, paying specific attention to the literature dealing with same-sex partnerships. Second, it provides a reconstruction of the Italian policy trajectory, from the entrance of the issue into political debate until the enactment of the civil union law, by considering both partisan and societal actors for and against the legislative initiative. The article argues that the Italian progress towards the regulation of same-sex unions depended on the balance of power between change and blocking coalitions and their degree of congruence during the policymaking process. In 2016 the government formed a broad consensus and the parliament passed a law on civil unions. However, the new law represented only a small departure from the status quo due to the low congruence between actors within the change coalition.

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Religious Barriers to the Diffusion of Same-sex Civil Unions in Italy

Cited by 5 publications

References 50 publications

Surrogacy and “Procreative Tourism”. What Does the Future Hold from the Ethical and Legal Perspectives?

Surrogacy and “Procreative Tourism”. What Does the Future Hold from the Ethical and Legal Perspectives?

Does National Culture Influence Global Policy Diffusion: Evidence From Gender Mainstreaming Policy Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)

Somewhere over the rainbow: Italy and the regulation of same-sex unions

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