Equal Parenting Rights For Gay Couples
New Laws in the UK Give Same Sex Parents Equality
Aug 26, 2009
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in the UK has recently passed a new law which gives same sex couples the same parental rights as heterosexual couples.
It wasn't until the birth of Louise Brown in 1978, after the world's first IVF procedure, that lesbian and gay couples had the chance to become parents. Adoptions were not permitted for homosexuals in Britain until March 2007, when new laws made it illegal for government funded adoption agencies to discriminate against them on the basis of their sexual orientation.
After Louise's birth, artificial insemination became possible for lesbians and the use of surrogacy for gays. However, the law still required that in order for them both to be legally recognised as parents, they would have to adopt the child. Only lesbian mothers who had given birth had any legal parental rights. By contrast, married heterosexual fathers had rights from the moment of birth, and unmarried fathers if they were named on the child's birth certificate.
Equal Marriage, Equal Rights to Have Children?
On 21st December 2005, a new civil partnership law came into effect in England and Wales, giving same sex couples the right to 'marry' in registry offices. It was inevitable that the right to found their own legal family would eventually follow the right to a recognised partnership.
In April 2009, it became a legal right that both parents, regardless of their gender, were entitled to be named on the child's birth certificate.
This means that if a gay couple used a surogate to become parents, then the man whose sperm wasn't used and who had no biological connection to the child, could still legally declare his intent to be a father to that child and have the rights associated with that.
We are Now in a Level Playing Field
Professor Lisa Jardine from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) welcomed the news.
"We are now levelling the playing field. From now on, all parents regardless of their sexuality will now be named on their child’s birth certificate. The desire for a family and for one's own child is a very powerful force, affecting people regardless of their sexual orientation or circumstance."
Amendments to the act include:
- A ban on selecting the sex of a child for social reasons
- Regulation of human admixed embryos (cross human and animal embryos)
- Requiring clinics to take into account 'the welfare of the child', but removing the 'need for a father' clause, giving single women greater power to have children
- Enabling same sex couples to apply for an order to allow them to be treated as the parents of a child born via surrogacy
- Allowing same sex couples the legal right to be parents to children conceived through the use of donated eggs, sperm or embryos.
For more information on the act, see:
http://www.hfea.gov.uk/2879.html
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