ECHR rejects appeal on surrogacy kid registration

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 22 - The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday rejected a series of appeals against Italy by same-sex couples asking the court to condemn Rome because it does not permit the registration of foreign birth certificates of children born using surrogate mothers.
    In one case, the appeal was filed by a heterosexual couple.
    The court said the couples had had the option of adopting their children, and had not taken it.
    The Italian government has filed a bill to make surrogacy a "universal crime", meaning that henceforth couples who come back from abroad with kids had by a surrogate will be prosecuted.
    Gay couples in the northern city of Padua are appealing requests by prosecutors to cancel the name of non-biological mothers from children's birth certificates on grounds of alleged illegitimacy.
    The ECHR ruling is a blow against gay couples' fights across Italy to keep the option of foreign surrogacy alive. (ANSA).