Equality - Lesbians given equal birth rights

BBC news reported progress earlier this month:

"Lesbians given equal birth rights

"Women in same-sex relationships can now register both their names on
the birth certificate of a child conceived as a result of fertility
treatment.  Female couples not in a civil partnership but receiving
fertility treatment may also both be registered.  The law change applies
to female couples in England and Wales who were having fertility
treatment on or after 6 April 2009.

However critics say the change would be detrimental to family values.
Previously, the mother's female partner could not be registered as a
parent.  But the change in the law confers legal parenthood on the
mother's female partner.

According to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, there
were 728 lesbians who underwent in vitro fertilisation (IVF) between
1999 and 2006.  And in the same period, there were 5,211 lesbian females
who received donor insemination (DI) treatment.

The changes to the Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations 1987
were approved by Registrar General James Hall earlier this year,
following Royal Assent for new parenthood provisions contained in the
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008.

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said that there will be provision for
a birth certificate to be used that will have two "parent" sections,
rather than mother and father.  Also, sperm donors will continue to be
able to opt in or out of having their name on the birth certificate, but
if both mothers wish to have their name on the document, the donor
cannot be registered in that way.

Home Office Minister Lord Brett said: "This positive change means that,
for the first time, female couples who have a child using fertility
treatment have the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts to be
shown as parents in the birth registration.  "It is vital that we afford
equality wherever we can in society, especially as family circumstances
continue to change. This is an important step forward in that process."

Conservative MP Nadine Dorries told the BBC that the move undermined the
traditional family model.  She said: "If we want to build a stable
society, a mother and father and children works as the best model.  "We
should be striving towards repairing and reinforcing marriage. I think
this move sends out the exact opposite message."

Dr Peter Saunders, of the Christian Medical Fellowship, criticised the
move, telling the Daily Mail that the change would "create a legal
fiction around the parentage of the children" which would then result in
a "legal minefield" when it came to issues of maintenance and
inheritance.  He was supported by Labour MP Geraldine Smith, who said:
'To have a birth certificate with two mothers and no father is just
madness."

Stonewall's Head of Policy and Research Ruth Hunt said that as a result
of the law change, life for lesbian families "isn't only fairer, it's
also much easier".  She added: "As the law improves to provide further
equality, knowing your new rights will help people make full use of the
services they're entitled to.  And, if discrimination occurs, the same
knowledge can help them demand fair treatment.  "Now lesbian couples in
the UK who make a considered decision to start a loving family will
finally be afforded equal access to services they help fund as
taxpayers."


"'Brilliant' news for lesbian couples - By Mario Cacciottolo, BBC News

"The news that lesbian couples in England and Wales who start a family
through fertility treatment can now place both their names on the birth
certificate has been welcomed by a gay couple with children.

Eve Carlile describes the move as "practically really helpful, and
ideologically great".  The 33-year-old lives with her partner Rosalind
Carlile, 34, in Scunthorpe with their two boys, aged four and one.  The
two adults have been together for 12 years and in a civil partnership
for the last three.  Both their children were conceived by Rosalind
using an anonymous sperm donor.

"It's brilliant that women in our situation will have full legal rights
for the co-parent from the beginning," Eve said.  "It's fantastically
good news.  "We didn't conceive our children together, but we did
conceive of them.  "Hopefully it will have a positive effect on
society's view of lesbian and gay people, because the government are
basically saying that we're OK, and perhaps people who are not gay will
begin to think the same."

The new law only counts for women receiving fertility treatment on or
after 6 April of this year.  For women like Eve, this means that she has
to adopt the children, and she has begun that procedure.  "It's a little
bit farcical, because we have to be seen by a social worker who has to
take time away from children who are at risk to examine my case," she
said.  "I'm not a step-parent but I'm regarded as such in the adoption
process. Understandably, the social workers put cases like ours at the
bottom of their list.  "While I'm pleased that this new law has come in
for couples in the future, it's a shame that it won't have a positive
effect on people like us, that it won't mean our case will be
fast-tracked or anything."

Eve also said the new law "cannot be anything other than a good thing"
in the advancement of gay issues among public opinion.  "The media
coverage will help get the point across that our lifestyle is 'normal',
for want of a better word, and nothing to get excited about.  "But I
don't think many people are homophobic about our type of family.
Certainly we've never experienced any homophobia, at school or in
church, anywhere.  "The new law means that as the children attend school
and hospital, a woman in my situation can say that she is the other
parent."

Rosalind echoes her partner's sentiment, saying the previous
circumstances have been "such a pain".  She added: "This whole adoption
procedure is going to be long and drawn out and it's a waste time and
resources.  "Unfortunately it would be an administrative nightmare for
the government to go back and apply the law retrospectively, but you
would think they would fast-track cases such as ours, for people who
have had fertility treatment in the last few years."

BBC reports:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8225158.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8229401.stm
(C) Copyright acknowledged © BBC

--
paul
beholder, eye of ... perspective, point of ...
http://www.watman.clara.co.uk/horns_of_a_dilemma.html
[ Auf dieses Posting antworten ]