La filiazione e le sue forme

Biotechnology applied to human reproduction raises new questions, or maybe just old questions dressed in new clothes. The Italian Constitution and the civil code conceive filiation as a relationship between parents and children based on the act of procreation. Consequently, parenthood implies responsibility and care deriving from having given birth to a child. Only in cases of incapacity of the parents does the law provide for fulfilment of their duties. This subsidiary solution is usually adoption which grants the right to the child of growing up in a family. However, insemination by donor and surrogate motherhood makes possible the separation the role of parents and their responsibility from biological parenthood right from the beginning of the process. This new perspective opens the door to a new form of filiation. In fact, the perspective of responsibility as a consequence of procreation tends to be substituted by the idea of assumption of responsibility, which is a choice. Moreover, filiation is presented within the framework of reproductive self-determination, which results in two main consequences. The first is that filiation becomes the object of a subjective right instead of a relationship between parent and child. The second is that the role of parent becomes alienable, which prompts a return to the ancient concept of the ownership of children: from children as aliquid naturaliter parentis to children as aliquid artificialiter parentis.