Single person provides the foreign child with a stable and harmonious home

Abstract

The study addresses the Italian Constitutional Court decision 33/2025, which holds that the law barring single persons from adopting foreign children is unconstitutional. The Italian legal system has already admitted a single person to adopt a child, so a single person can guarantee a loving family environment.  Articles 2 and 117 of the Italian Constitution, the latter in relation to Article 8 of the ECHR, recognize the right to respect for private and family life, so the interdiction to adopt a child by a single person is unconstitutional. The declaration doesn’t attribute a claim to adopt, because the best interest of the child is predominant. It just represents an opportunity to express the freedom of self-determination in choosing to begin the adoption process. The court, amid a rapid decline in adoption rates, determined that it is in the interest of the minors to be adopted in a framework of international solidarity. The decision results from an evolution according to social changes and comes after the entry into force of the Italian law that recognizes surrogacy as a universal crime.