Judgment of 27 October 1989
Annual Review of Population Law 16: 49
1989
ISSN/ISBN: 0364-3417 PMID: 12344439 Document Number: 341372
In Italy, the plaintiffs, husband and wife, entered into a contract with the defendant to undergo artificial insemination with the sperm of the husband, to bear the resulting child, and to give it up for adoption by the couple for a payment of 15 million lire. When, after giving birth, the defendant changed her mind, the plaintiffs sought to have a court enforce the contract. The court refused, noting that the contract was null because of the impossibility of contracting with respect to a human fetus, the illegality of exchanging money for the procreation of a child, and fraud perpetrated with respect to the adoption laws.