Two separate announcements were made yesterday to enable both partners of female same-sex couples to be recorded as parents of children conceived through donor conception or surrogacy.

First, the Department of Health is considering giving to Courts the power to resolve parenthood in surrogacy cases, particularly those involving same-sex couples. This would involve a court declaring the intended parent or parents of a child born through assisted human reproduction to be the legal parent(s).

In addition, Minister for Health Simon Harris signed regulations to commence Sections 2 and 3 of the Children and Family Relationships Act which will now come into effect on May 5th, 2020. Under the Act, the mother of a donor-conceived child will be allowed to name the second parent, regardless of that person’s sex. The child will have a birth cert naming both parents.