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Anything but child's play: surrogacy and thorny issues of identity, parenthood and status in modern families
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AB v CD and others [2018] EWHC 1590 (Fam) illustrates how the needs of modern families formed through assisted conception and surrogacy continue to challenge and outpace the law. Louisa Ghevaert and Richard Jones analyse the case in the September issue of
Family Law ([2018] Fam Law 1187).
On one level the case focused on disputes about arrangements for the children’s upbringing including exercise of parental responsibility and contact. However at the heart of this case were fundamental issues about the legal identity and status of the parents and children because the biological intended parents had not applied for parental orders.
This case marked the first time the court had to deal with a situation whereby a family created through surrogacy encountered serious domestic violence marital breakdown divorce and remarriage forming a new blended family.
The court was unable to resolve the children’s legal parentage and family identity issues. Keehan J’s frustration in not being able to legally recognise the children’s biological parents under English law was palpable. Instead he made the children wards of court and made child arrangements orders in favour of the intended biological...
Read the full article here.
