Dalla genetica alla relazione: riconoscimento della genitorialità intenzionale e tutela effettiva del minore (commento a margine di Corte cost., 22 maggio 2025, n. 68)

Abstract

The article examines Italian Constitutional Court judgment No. 68 of 22 May 2025 and its role in the “constitutionalisation” of intentional parenthood. Against the backdrop of legislative inertia following the Court’s 2021 warnings, the analysis argues that the decision prioritises the child’s best interests and relational identity, giving precedence to responsibility assumed within a shared procreative project over mere biology. It highlights the structural shortcomings of “adoption in special cases” as a non-equivalent, remedial and uncertain pathway that cannot secure full status from birth. Read through Articles 2, 3 and 30 of the Constitution – and in dialogue with European case law – the ruling is framed as a defensive intervention removing a constitutional deficit in the equality of children and the legal certainty of family bonds. The paper closes by outlining reform options for an organic framework of intentional filiation that guarantees, ab initio, the juridical crystallisation of caregiving relationships.