A UK Court has ruled against a male couple’s request [1] that the mother of their child be barred from seeing him.
The unusual case arose after the woman agreed to be a surrogate for the couple. But in the absence of a donated egg, the woman herself provided the egg, meaning she carried her own biological child which she handed over to the couple upon birth.
Soon afterwards she signed a parental order granting responsibility for the child to the men along with a second order ensuring that she could have regular contact with the child, now aged 4, who lived permanently with his dads.
But the same-sex couple reneged on that agreement – leading to a doorstep argument described as ‘horrendous’ by the judge when she turned up at their house to see her son for a pre-arranged visit but the men threatened to call the police.
The men then pursued a series of legal cases against her that would cut her out of the boy’s life.
But the British courts have ruled in the mother’s favour and she retains legal parentage and a share of parental responsibility for the child.