The supreme Court of Cassation has ruled that gay couples in Italy can adopt children abroad as long as they do not resort to surrogate mothers.
The ruling came in a case involving two men, an Italian and a US citizen, who adopted a child in New York.
"The fact that the family nucleus is homo-parental cannot be a hurdle to adoption provided that surrogate maternity is excluded," the supreme court judges wrote.
The court rejected an appeal from a mayor in a Lombardy town against a Milan appeals court verdict recognising the boy, who is now 10, as the child of the two men.
The judges noted that the adoption had taken all due course and had been dependent upon an assessment of the couple's suitability to be parents.
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