fertility law

A couple who lost custody of their baby daughter to her surrogate mother have been ordered to hand over more than £500 a month maintenance for the child.

Today they spoke of their disgust that they would be forced to pay for someone else to raise the child they will never see. The father, a leading chef, said the decision by the Child Support Agency ‘added insult to injury’ and that he would appeal against it.

Surrogacy has been around for many years and disputes rarely arise. There have only been a handful of published cases in the English courts where a surrogacy arrangement has gone wrong. However, the recently published case of TT (a Minor) [1] received national press and radio coverage, focusing on Mr Justice Baker's warning about the inherent risks of surrogacy, awarding care of the baby to the surrogate mother and yet again putting surrogacy in the media spotlight.

Having a child is the most natural thing in the world. In an ideal scenario, it’s a situation born of love, commitment and the desire to procreate. But what if the usual trappings of that romantic impulse to give life aren’t available to you?
To put it into context, The UK Adoption and Children Act 2002 gave same-sex couples the right to jointly adopt children, and in the same year the English Court of Appeal judged that a same-sex couple could be seen to be “living together as husband and wife”.

Pride Angel is delighted that Natalie Gamble from Gamble&Ghevaert has been named in the Independent on Sunday’s Pink List 2010, the paper’s renowned annual review of the 101 most influential gay and lesbian people in Britain. At number 88, Natalie is recognised as a “pioneer of fertility law” who was “heavily involved in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 and nominated in 2008 as Stonewall’s Hero of the Year”.

The High Court has decided that a lesbian (non birth) mother does not have to financially support the ten year old child she conceived together with her partner. In a landmark decision, the court has ruled that even though the mother was awarded ’parental responsibility’ for her child and the right to full involvement in her child’s care, she cannot be held financially responsible because, at law, she is not a ‘parent’.
The decision highlights the complexity of concepts of parenthood as they apply to same sex parenting, and the problems that arise when relationships break down.

Birth certificates naming two gay dads are now a reality in the UK. Natalie Gamble and Louisa Ghevaert founding partners of one of UK's leading specialist fertility law firms. Gamble & Ghevaert explain these groundbreaking legal changes.
There is definately an art to building a family as a gay man. Times are changing, and the UK's new gay-friendly surrogacy laws are just one example of the options now available.

New legislation allowing same-sex couples to become the legal parents of children born following IVF or surrogacy will come into force next week. The law change will mean couples no longer need to be married to be named on their child's birth certificate and is intended to afford unmarried and same-sex couples the same rights to legal parenthood as married heterosexual couples. It forms the final stage of the implementation of the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008.