Becoming son and daugther: stepfamilies through the special adoption policy

In the last few years Italy assisted at the growth of a new social phenomenon: the creation of those new families defined in legal terms “special case adoptions’ families.” Section 44 of law 184/83” (CAI, 2012) defines them “ rejoined families that ask for a legal uphold the role of parenthood achieved via the new situation”. Thanks to the experience gained in the last 12 years (2001-2013) the Adoptions Team of ASL [Local Health Authority] of Padua, had the possibility to observe the genesis and the stabilization of these new familiar nucleus. During a continuous and meticulous observation the Adoptions Team has developed the correct modalities and projected the proper tools thanks to which the children involved as the weakest part of the event can have a correct support. What is important for the Adoptions Team is to explain and give a meaning to those legal changes in which the children get, involuntarily, involved. This aspect is fundamental because it represents a connection with the anguishing past the children lived but also with the desire to “ransom” their story.