Irish woman declared legal mother of surrogate twins
An woman in the Republic of Ireland who is the genetic mother of twins has won a legal battle to be declared their legal mother.
Authorities had previously refused to list the woman as genetic mother on the twin’s birth certificates. But sitting at the High Court of Ireland in Dublin, Mr Justice Henry Abbott ruled that the woman was the children’s legal mother and both she and the children were entitled to a legal declaration to that effect.
The twin’s surrogate mother was the genetic mother’s sister and she had not objected to the application, the Irish Times reports.
The judged declared that the previous assumption under Irish law that the birth mother was automatically the legal mother was no longer valid in the era of in-vitro fertilisation.
He said:
“To achieve fairness and constitutional and natural justice for both the paternal and maternal genetic parents, the feasible inquiry in relation to maternity ought to be made on a genetic basis and on being proven, the genetic mother should be registered as the mother.”
In English law, by contrast, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 specifies that the surrogate mother is always the legal mother of the child.
Photo of the Father Mathew Bridge in Dublin by Barcex via Wikipedia under a Creative Commons licence
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