European policies on same-sex relationships, adoption and assisted reproduction

Abstract

Same-sex civil union, marriage, adoption and access to assisted reproduction have progressively been more accepted worldwide. However, many differences exist in national legislation regarding the matter. This work is a review of current national policies of 31 European countries, including all the European Union, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. At the moment, many European countries recognize same-sex civil unions, marriage and adoption, as well as the access of single women and lesbian couples to assisted reproduction, specially the northern and western countries. However, there is still an important number of countries where there is no official recognition of gay partnerships and adoption, and fertility treatments are exclusive to heterosexual couples. In addition, given the need to surrogacy, male couples have quite limited options concerning assisted reproduction in Europe. Europe is progressively allowing same-sex couples to legalize their relationship and to open adoption and assisted reproduction to everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation or marital status.