BETWEEN THE CHILD-WISH AND CHILDREN’S RIGHTS INEUROPEAN GLOBALIZED GAMETE DONATION: FROM DIVERGENTTO CONVERGENT REGULATORY MODELS

Abstract

Technological procreation has profoundly transformed the legal architecture of filiation,
shifting the foundation of parenthood from genetic facts to reproductive intentions and contractual
consent. Because family law remains a matter of domestic jurisdiction, divergent national
approaches have emerged. This comparative study evaluates North Macedonia, which represents
a liberal legislative baseline, alongside Italy, a jurisdiction that initially enforced deep restrictions
but subsequently experienced court-driven liberalization.
Accelerated by transnational gamete banks, cross-border reproductive care has exposed
deep fractures between diverse national donor anonymity regimes, displacing traditional biological
and marital presumptions of parenthood. Consequently, while adult reproductive autonomy has
expanded, the legal position of the newborn has become fragmented and precarious. Drawing upon
European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence and contemporary bioethical debates, this article
argues that technological procreation has produced a structural imbalance between adult
reproductive liberty and children’s independent rights to identity and genealogical integrity.
Ultimately, this article contends that the law must re-center the newborn as a primary bearer
of rights rather than a byproduct of market transactions. It proposes a harmonized European
regulatory framework featuring a unified donor registry, enforceable donation caps, and a
procedural bifurcation between parentage establishment and informational identity proceedings to
restore normative coherence.