By Filio Kontrafouri, Greek Reporter. (image: George Girnas/Unsplash)
Greece is amending a surrogacy provision of a recent law that allows same-sex couples to marry but excludes them from future parenthood via surrogacy, leaving no possibility for same-sex male couples to challenge the law in court, Greek Justice Minister said Tuesday.
The Ministry of Justice has prepared a multi-bill in which a specific provision in a chapter of the Civil Code (Article 1350) concerning Greek family law is amended and effectively bans same-sex male couples and single men from having a baby through a surrogate mother, who now will no longer be able to challenge the legislation in court.
The amendment comes after several couples had referred their cases to Greek courts, which had issued conflicting decisions. Justice Minister Giorgos Floridis said that the law amendment follows these decisions so that it becomes clear that “men do not have the right to surrogacy.”
“We are providing a clear explanation of what consists an inability to conceive and what consists an inability to conceive due to someone’s sex,” Floridis said. “The district court said yes and the Court of Appeals said no. So we stepped in to clarify things.”