“The adoption of multiple people is permitted, even with subsequent acts. No one can be adopted by more than one person, unless the two adopters are husband and wife”, so states the current text of article 294 of the Civil Code, according to which – in the second paragraph – essentially no one can be adopted by more than one person at the same time, except in the case in which the two adopters are husband and wife.
Here, precisely this point here the Constitutional Court has just declared illegitimate, establishing that even two people of the same sex who are in a civil union can adopt an adult together. No longer, therefore, just husband and wife: the family bond can be legally recognized even when a homosexual couple requests adoption.
This was established by sentence number 195 of 2026, with which the Council intervenes on a disparity which, until today, forced civilly united couples to make a choice: only one of the two partners could become an adoptive parent, even when both had contributed for years to the growth and life of the person they wished to adopt.
An important decision for the recognition of same-parent families, which however concerns exclusively the adoption of adults and does not change the rules on the ordinary adoption of children.
The story of the Milan couple that led to the sentence
At the origin of the pronunciation there is a family history that has lasted for over thirty years. Two people, civilly united in November 2016 after a long relationship, had asked to be able to jointly adopt an adult woman, granddaughter of one of the two. A relationship, the one with the girl, which began practically from birth. The two, as stated in the sentence, were even present outside the delivery room when she came into the world and, over the years, had participated in the most important decisions of her life, contributing to her growth both economically and emotionally.
The woman wanted to be adopted by both of them and her biological mother had also expressed her consent. Yet, despite that family bond built over time and recognized by all the people involved, the law allowed adoption by only one of the two partners.
The Court of Milan therefore raised the question of constitutional legitimacy, asking the Council to evaluate whether such an exclusion was compatible with the fundamental rights recognized by the Constitution.
Because the Council declared the ban illegitimate
The judges’ reasoning starts from the consideration that the adoption of an adult does not only serve to transmit a surname or recognize hereditary rights, but can give a legal form to an already existing emotional relationship. To a bond, that is, which in everyday life is familiar to all intents and purposes, even if it is not yet recognized by law.
According to the Court, preventing one of the members of a civil union from adopting a person with whom they have built over time a relationship similar to that between parent and child means unreasonably compressing the right to personal identity and recognition of one’s family life.
Then there is another fundamental step: the Consulta expressly recognizes that the civil union has a familial nature, from which rights, duties and a stable legal bond between the partners derive. Consequently, there is no sufficient reason to prevent both from becoming adoptive parents of the same adult.
The original rule in fact had a specific purpose: to prevent a person from accumulating adoptive filiation relationships with subjects who were strangers to each other. But this risk, the judges observe, does not arise in the same way when the adopters already constitute a single family unit. For this reason, the Court declared the constitutional illegitimacy of article 294, second paragraph, of the Civil Code, in the part in which it did not provide for this possibility also for the members of a civil union.
What changes concretely for same-sex couples
With this decision, civilly united couples will therefore be able to ask to adopt an adult together, without being forced to identify just one of the partners as the adopter. Naturally, the adoption will not be automatic: all the requirements established by the Civil Code will continue to apply, including the necessary consents and the judge’s assessment of the interests of the adopted person.
Recognition will also entail concrete legal consequences, from the attribution of the surname to inheritance rights, up to mutual maintenance obligations.
The adoption of an adult, however, has different characteristics from that of a child: it does not erase relationships with the family of origin and does not automatically produce the same effects as the full adoption of a minor.
What about child adoptions? The ban remains
This is where a fundamental distinction needs to be made, because the ruling does not open the doors to adoptions indiscriminately for homosexual couples. In Italy, two people of the same sex in a civil union continue to be unable to jointly access the ordinary adoption of a minor.
However, in the presence of the conditions established by law, it remains possible to resort to adoption in particular cases, through the so-called stepchild adoptionwhich allows one partner to adopt the other’s child.
And on November 12th the Constitutional Court also expressed its opinion on another issue, that of international adoptions of minors by civilly united same-sex couples.
With sentence number 194 of 2026, the judges declared the issues raised inadmissible, believing that it is up to Parliament to evaluate a possible extension of this possibility and establish the conditions, keeping the interests of children at the center.
The Consulta, therefore, did not introduce a new right to international adoption for these couples, but left the evaluation of a possible change to the legislator. Another step towards the recognition of same-sex families.
