Ireland, Parental rights, Same Sex

Outdated Irish passports laws mean gay couple’s son denied

Source Irish Central


An Irish-Canadian couple are outraged after being denied an Irish passport for their young son.

Jay O’Callaghan and Aaron O’Bryan told a local news channel that they will not be granted an Irish passport for their son Jake unless they identify the child’s biological father. Doing so would leave the other with no parental rights in Ireland.

The Toronto-based couple said that they both provided sperm to fertilize the donor egg that was implanted in the surrogate who gave birth to their son.

The couple chose not to find out whose genetic material was passed on to Jake.

Read more

Ireland, Parental rights, Same Sex

Ireland – I’m Not Recognised As My Da0ughter’s Mother Due To ‘Modern’ Irish Family Law’

Source Extra.ie

A family have been left devastated after discovering that a law due this autumn will not grant them equal parental rights — even though their daughter is nearly two-years-old.

Same-sex couple Bex, 48, and Steffi Payne, 28, are based in Roscommon and Steffi gave birth to daughter Ava as a result of home insemination in September 2016.

When setting out on the journey to start a family, the couple decided to go down the route of using donor sperm to help them conceive.

Read more

Ireland, Parental rights, Same Sex

Ireland – Same sex couples to be allowed to register names on child’s passport and birth cert

Source Irish Times

Bill to fix drafting errors in 2015 Act will also ban anonymous sperm, egg donations

Same sex parents will finally be able to register both their names on their child’s birth certificate after the introduction of a Bill to amend drafting errors in previous legislation.

The Children and Family Relationships (Amendment) Bill will also ban anonymous sperm and egg donation in fertility treatment and will allow children born through donor assisted human reproduction access to their genetic heritage once they turn 18.

Provisions for the ban and a register to allow children access to their personal family information were contained in the Children and Family Relationships Act passed in 2015

Read more

Parental rights, UK

UK – Rights for Surrogate Parents

Source Working Families

Surrogacy is when another woman carries and gives birth to a baby for the couple who want to have a child. One or both of the couple may provide the genetic material for the child. You should seek legal advice before entering into a surrogacy arrangement.

Read more

Parental rights, UK

UK – Surrogacy reform could remove automatic rights from birth parents

Source The Telegraph

The current law means intended parents must apply for a court order to gain legal rights over the child. CREDIT: DOMINIC LIPINSKI /PA

Surrogacy laws could be reformed to remove automatic rights from birth parents, under plans being examined by the Government.

Law Commission recommendations to reform surrogacy law have received Government backing and will be developed to make the rules “fit for the modern world”.

A three-year project will examine the current rules which give a woman and her husband automatic parentage over any child she gives birth to, even if the child is not biologically theirs.

It will “consider the legal parentage of children born via surrogacy, and the regulation of surrogacy more widely,” the Law Commission said.

Read more

Parental rights, Same Sex, Surrogacy

Gay people using a surrogate have to put time and effort into planning parenthood

Source DevonLive

I wish people who disapprove of the decision by Plymouth diver Tom Daley and his partner Dustin Lance Black to have a baby by surrogacy, would just shut up.

The most common criticism, apart from plain old prejudice, is that the baby will suffer from not having a mother.

Unlike some heterosexual couples who accidentally have babies, or decide on a whim, same-sex couples are almost certainly going to discuss and plan their children at length

Read more

Parental rights, Same Sex

Guess This Week’s Craziest State In Assisted Reproductive Technology Law: Mississippi Or Arizona?

Source Above The Law

Did you guess Mississippi? Wrong. Your assumptions about the Magnolia State notwithstanding, last week, the Mississippi Supreme Court issued a strong, well-reasoned opinion that reversed a lower court decision that would have created trouble for hopeful parents in Mississippi. The lower court had ruled that an anonymous sperm donor was in fact the legal parent of a child, even though that would have meant displacing one of the women (of a same-sex female couple) who had raised him. Yay, Mississippi! A victory for both families and LGBT individuals.

Read more

Commercial Surrogacy, India, Parental rights, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

India – Surrogacy Regulation is Stuck Between Market, Family and State

Source The Wire

Through the years, India’s stand on surrogacy has varied from a medico-liberal to a carceral model, but the best safeguards for surrogates would be empowerment rather than relying on the market or the state for protection.

Surrogacy policy in India has varied from encouraging commercial surrogacy to allowing only altruistic surrogacy, a move that was condemned by a parliamentary standing committee Credit: Reuters

Law has long been the site of intense political, social and economic contest over women’s reproductive labour. Surrogacy is no exception. Over the past 15 years, numerous legislative drafts on surrogacy have been proposed, making India possibly the only country in the world to seriously consider all possible regulatory approaches to surrogacy ranging from a liberal, contract-based model in the late 1990s to a prohibitionist, carceral model in 2016.
Read more

Parental rights, single parents, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law

UK – Surrogacy Laws Must Recognise Single Parents Says Joint Committee

Source Each Other

Surrogacy laws in the UK prevent single parents from obtaining a parental order, which means that they are not recognised in law as the parent of their biological child.

The government is correcting this injustice, but the Joint Committee on Human Rights says that the proposed changes still don’t comply with human rights law.

Publishing the report earlier this month, the committee looked at the Government’s proposed changes to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (2008). The key issues centred around the compatibility of the proposals with the right to private and family life provided for by the Human Rights Convention.

Read more

Parental rights, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Parents

Court upholds surrogacy contracts as enforceable in Iowa

Source National Post

DES MOINES, Iowa — The birth mother of an 18-month-old girl, paid as a surrogate to have the baby, is not legally the child’s parent, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday in an emotional case that concluded surrogacy contracts can be enforced in Iowa.

The ruling means the girl remains with the Cedar Rapids couple, the only parents she has known since leaving the hospital after birth.

Read more

Gestational carrier agreements, Gestational surrogacy, Infertility, intended parents, Parental rights, Singapore, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, surrogate children, Surrogate Mother

6 Legal Issues Singaporean Couples Should Consider Before Hiring a Surrogate

Source: Yahoo Finance

According to the Ministry of Health (MOH), surrogacy refers to the arrangement where “a woman is artificially impregnated, whether for monetary compensation or not, with the intention that the child is to be the social child of some other person or couple”.

Commercial surrogacy often involves a fee paid to the surrogate mother. By hiring a surrogate mother, you are essentially hiring a woman to carry and deliver a child for you.

Read more

Law, Parental rights, Surrogacy, surrogate children, Surrogate Mother

‘Platonic’ couple can be joint parents

Source: The Times

Sir James Munby, the leading judge, said that a sexual relationship was not necessary for a marriage to be valid

A married couple in a sexless marriage because one of them is gay have been given the go ahead to be joint parents to a surrogate baby.

Britain’s leading Family Court judge, Sir James Munby, said it did not matter that the marriage was “platonic” or that they had separate homes.

Read more

intended parents, Parental rights, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, UK

UK – Surrogacy abroad: how to get started

Source: Lexology

With more people facing fertility issues and couples increasingly seeking alternative routes to have children, there is a growing number of UK families created through surrogacy.

In the last three years, the number of children being born through surrogacy has almost tripled according to figures from the Ministry of Justice Family Court.

Surrogacy is no longer a taboo – along with adoption it has become an accepted alternative to traditional child birth. It has even recently featured in the Archers on Radio 4 and has been put into the headlines by Kim Kardashian and Kanye West who have recently used a surrogate to have their baby, Chicago.

Read more

Gay Parenting, intended parents, Law, Parental rights, Same Sex, Surrogacy, Surrogacy Law, Surrogate Mother

New Uniform Parentage Act Becomes Law in Washington State

Source: The Humanist

Earlier this week, Governor Jay Inslee of Washington signed into law an updated version of the state’s Uniform Parentage Act. Written to safeguard the rights of LGBTQ and non-biological parents, the new law defines a “de facto” parent as well as allows compensation beyond medical and other expenses for surrogate mothers.

According to the law’s sponsor, state Senator Jamie Pedersen, who has four children with his husband conceived through surrogacy, the bill will help parents who want to have a child through surrogacy at home in Washington State, rather than leaving the state. (Pedersen and his husband had their children in California where compensated surrogacy is already allowed.)

Read more

donor sperm, intended parents, Parental rights, Same Sex, Sperm Donation

The Continuing Legal Evolution of the Concepts of ‘Parent’ and ‘Child’

Source: New York Law Journal

Alton L. Abramowitz

On Jan. 25, 2018, the Appellate Division, Third Department, issued a significant decision in Matter of Christopher YY v. Jessica ZZ, 2018 NY Slip Op 00495. Underlying the court’s determination is the conundrum which it describes as follows: “Application of existing case law involving different-gender spouses, addressing whether the presumption [of legitimacy] has been rebutted, to a child born to a same-gender married couple is inherently problematic, as it is not currently scientifically possible for same-gender couples to produce a child that is biologically ‘the product of the marriage’ [citations omitted].”

Read more

Artificial Insemination, Parental rights, Same Sex, Sperm Donor

Supreme Court lets stand Arizona ruling on same-sex paternity case

Source azcentral

The Supreme Court on Monday let stand an Arizona ruling that said paternity should be applied the same way in same-sex marriages as it is in opposite-sex marriages when it comes to determining parental rights.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday let stand an Arizona ruling that said paternity should be applied the same way in same-sex marriages as it is in opposite-sex marriages when it comes to determining parental rights.

The court’s refusal to hear the case means Suzan McLaughlin still has parental rights over the child that Kimberly McLaughlin conceived through artificial insemination while the two were married.

Read more

Gay Parenting, Parental rights, Same Sex, Sperm Donation, Sperm Donor

Lesbian Couple’s Sperm Donor Sues for Parental Rights

Source: The Daily Beast

A New York state man who supplied his sperm for a lesbian couple’s at-home insemination was denied a paternity test by a state appeals court last week, possibly ending his battle for parental rights over the now 3-year-old girl who was born as a result of his donation.

Read more

Gay Parenting, intended parents, Parental rights, Same Sex, Sperm Donor

Sperm donor denied parental rights for child of same-sex parents

Source: USA Today

A married same-sex Chemung County couple can rebuff an effort by a sperm donor to exert parental rights on the daughter born as a result of the arrangement.

Read More