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Although the right to know one’s origins has increasingly gathered momentum, anonymous birth remains an insurmountable obstacle to access in identifying information concerning one’s biological parents, at least within the Italian legal context. The judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case of Godelli v Italy reiterated that the problematic issue does not lie in the woman’s right to remain anonymous per se, but rather in its irreversible nature. In addition to providing an analytical account of the main legislative and judicial milestones in the regulation of anonymous birth in Italy, the present paper wishes to shed light on two issues which has thus far been disregarded: firstly, all the arguments in favour of reversibility tend to be adoptee-centred, thus failing to contemplate the rise of a similar desire for knowledge on the side of the woman and, as a result, her right to initiate a search for her child; secondly, although the multiplicity of parties concerned is often invoked as a peculiarity of as well as a source of complexity in the regulation of anonymous birth, the figure of the biological father is de facto rarely acknowledged and involved, under the controversial assumption that all undesired pregnancies which lead to anonymous birth are the result of abusive relationships.
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4
Law n. 93 of 22 January 2002, loi relative à l’accès aux origines des personnes adoptées et pupilles de l’Etat (law concerning the access to origins of adopted persons and children in public care), also called Loi Royal (from the name of Ségolène Royal, former Minister for Family, Childhood and Persons with Disabilities) – available at http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=jorftext000000593077&dateTexte (last access on 3 February 2014); the body which was created to facilitate searches for origins is called Conseil National pour l’Accès aux Origines Personelles (http://www.cnaop.gouv.fr – last access on 2 February 2014), see new provisions from 147–1 to 147–9 of the Code de l’action sociale et des familles; the English version is included in the Grand Chamber’s judment of Odièvre v. France, para 17.
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59
Constitutional Court 2013, para. 6.
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60
Bill n. 1874, pending before the Chamber of Deputies since 3 December 2013. The text of the bill is available at http://www.camera.it/_dati/leg17/lavori/stampati/pdf/17pdl0014500.pdf (last access on 3 February 2014). There seems to be another bill, pending before the Chamber of Deputies since 10 July 2013 – text available at http://www.camera.it/_dati/leg17/lavori/stampati/pdf/17pdl0014830.pdf (last access 3 February 2014). According to the proposed reformulation, the mother can waive confidentiality at any time by submitting a specific declaration to the competent Tribunal of Minors. However, no mention is made of the possibility for the mother to initiate a search for her child.
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63
Constitutional Court 2005, para. 4; Constitutional Court 2013, para. 4; and, Godelli v. Italy, para. 42.
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67
Constitutional Court 2013, para. 5.
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68
Bill n. 1874, n. 61 above.
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Search for other papers by Alice Margaria in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Although the right to know one’s origins has increasingly gathered momentum, anonymous birth remains an insurmountable obstacle to access in identifying information concerning one’s biological parents, at least within the Italian legal context. The judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case of Godelli v Italy reiterated that the problematic issue does not lie in the woman’s right to remain anonymous per se, but rather in its irreversible nature. In addition to providing an analytical account of the main legislative and judicial milestones in the regulation of anonymous birth in Italy, the present paper wishes to shed light on two issues which has thus far been disregarded: firstly, all the arguments in favour of reversibility tend to be adoptee-centred, thus failing to contemplate the rise of a similar desire for knowledge on the side of the woman and, as a result, her right to initiate a search for her child; secondly, although the multiplicity of parties concerned is often invoked as a peculiarity of as well as a source of complexity in the regulation of anonymous birth, the figure of the biological father is de facto rarely acknowledged and involved, under the controversial assumption that all undesired pregnancies which lead to anonymous birth are the result of abusive relationships.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 377 | 88 | 10 |
| Full Text Views | 278 | 10 | 5 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 100 | 20 | 5 |
