After having been turned down for adoption by the relevant national authorities, a couple in their fifties turned to surrogacy in the Ukraine in 2011 for the sum of €25,000.
The fraud was detected when the intended parents tried to register the birth, on returning from Italy. The Court of Cassation decided that the child born abroad through surrogacy could not remain with the “intended parents” but had to be adopted by another family.
As reported in La Stampa, the Supreme Court pointed out that “according to Italian law, the woman who gives birth is the mother and the same law contains a formal ban on surrogacy which is reinforced by criminal proceedings”.
Le Figaro 12/11/2014