Natalie was delighted to meet the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, at a reception to celebrate the contribution of the LGBT community to Britain. The event was attended by leading gay and lesbian professionals, business leaders and celebrities, and Natalie was invited in recognition of her championing of UK gay and lesbian families, and her work at the forefront of winning new legal rights for same sex parents conceiving together through donor conception and surrogacy.
By Robin McKie, science editor, The Observer, Sunday 28 March 2010
Changes to legislation will recognise growing trend for same-sex couples to become parents, say campaigners.
Gay male couples will be able to use a fast-track route to become the legal parents of surrogate children from next week. On 6 April, changes to the law will permit two men to be named as parents on a child’s birth certificate for the first time in British history.
The transition will take effect following the implementation of the final piece of the 2008 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act. This last section is aimed at helping same-sex and unmarried couples who seek to have surrogate children and will allow them to secure legal parenthood in a new, simplified manner. At present, only married, heterosexual couples can use this route.
“These changes bring the law up to date with the realities of modern 21st-century life and recognise that increasing numbers of same-sex and unmarried couples are having children together,” said Natalie Gamble, of the fertility law firm Gamble and Ghevaert.
Surrogacy has become increasingly common and offers couples an alternative route to parenthood if all other methods, including IVF treatments, fail. Current legislation allows heterosexual, married couples to get a parental order to give them a birth certificate for a child born to a mother with whom they have entered into a surrogacy agreement. But gay, lesbian and unmarried couples cannot do this. The surrogate mother has to be named on the birth certificate. If she is married, her husband is legally considered to be the father.
An example is provided by the story of Steven Ponder and his partner, Ivan Sigston. Both are police officers. Last year, they became one of the first gay couples to father a baby in Britain when Ponder’s married sister, Lorna Bradley, gave birth to a boy, William.
Crucially, however, Lorna Bradley’s name appeared on the birth certificate, which made her a legal guardian of the child. Ponder and Sigston could have applied to adopt the baby. If successful, they would have been given an adoption certificate to replace his original birth certificate. But adoption is complex and involves the intervention of social workers and other professional groups.
The new system is far more streamlined. Provided that a court is satisfied that two men are in a stable relationship; that no fees, other than expenses, are paid to the surrogate mother; and that it is in the child’s best interest, then it will award a parental order for a birth certificate to be drawn up with both men named as parents, and therefore legal guardians. “Lesbian couples and unmarried couples usually have other routes available to them if they want to have children, but surrogacy is particularly important to gay men, so they will get most out of this change in legislation,” said Gamble.In effect, the law has now opened the doors in order to make it easy for a gay man and his partner to have children.
This point was backed by Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, the gay rights campaign group: “We are delighted that the reality of people’s family lives is being recognised at last, that both lesbian and gay couples no longer have to go through the unpleasantness of an adoption procedure.”
Gamble warned, however, that while the new legislation would make it easier for gay couples to have children, the rules governing surrogacy in the UK remained badly out of date.
“There are particular pitfalls for single parents and those going abroad. In the latter case, a couple returning to England with a surrogate child find that the law does not recognise their right to parenthood. It can cause immense distress. There are a lot of aspects of surrogacy that now need to be addressed urgently.”
More information about surrogacy law, international surrogacy law, and how the law is changing for same sex and unmarried couples from Gamble and Ghevaert LLP.
We are delighted to report that Natalie has been invited by the Prime Minister to a reception at 10 Downing Street to celebrate the contribution of leading lesbian and gay people to Britain.
The invitation to Number 10 recognises Natalie’s work as a prominent champion of same sex families. Natalie has both spoken openly and about her own experiences as a mother and given legal help and support to many hundreds of gay and lesbian families conceived through assisted reproduction. She was at the forefront of securing groundbreaking legal changes in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, allowing lesbian couples conceiving together through donor insemination to be named on the birth certificate together, and from April this year allowing gay couples who have a child through surrogacy to apply to court to be recognised as equal legal parents. The changes were controversial in Parliament (with MPs given a free vote to decide whether clinics should consider a child’s need for a mother and a father before offering fertility treatment) but were passed last year, and now ensure that same sex parents are treated in the same way as heterosexual couples conceiving through assisted reproduction.
You can find out more about Natalie and her work, about the new legal rights for lesbian parents and about how the law works for gay men considering surrogacy on our website.
The November edition of leading international law journal, International Family Law has published our substantial article ‘The chosen middle ground: England, surrogacy law and the international arena’. The article discusses the problems of international surrogacy law from the UK perspective and takes stock of the history of surrogacy law in the UK, explaining how the law has evolved over the past 25 years through the Warnock Report, the 1985 Surrogacy Arrangements Act, the 1990 legislation, the Brazier Report and the most recent changes in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, and examines where surrogacy law in the UK now stands.
Without harmonisation of international surrogacy laws, and in an increasingly globalised world in which prospective parents are increasingly crossing borders for fertility treatment, UK fertility law simply has not kept pace. The article examines the legal problems which arise for foreign couples coming to the UK for surrogacy, and the difficulties for British couples conceiving through surrogacy abroad (looking in particular at the importance of the Re X and Y case which involved a British-Ukrainian surrogacy arrangement and which we dealt with in the High Court a year ago). The article considers the way forward, arguing that international surrogacy law desperately needs to be reviewed.
If you would like to read the article in full, please contact us for a copy.
More information about international surrogacy law from our website.
The Daily Mail has featured an article on solo mothers by choice, looking at single women who conceive through sperm donation in the UK. Natalie Gamble is quoted in the article, alongside leading clinicians and patient representatives, as a leading fertility law expert. Natalie explains in particular how the change to the law removing clinics’ obligation to consider the child’s need for a father (which took effect on 1 October) has affected solo mothers.
Click here to read the article in full.
More information about the law for single mothers conceiving with donor sperm from our website.
Natalie Gamble was delighted to speak at Reproductive Medicine 2009 yesterday. The conference was a two day event at the Institute of Physics in London, assembling leading clinicians and other professionals involved in assisted reproduction. Natalie was invited to address the conference, as the UK’s leading fertility law expert, on the topic of Current Issues in Fertility Law.
Natalie’s seminar explained some of the key changes being implemented by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, and some key issues and pitfalls for patients and their clinicians. Natalie discussed changes to the rules on legal parenthood, current problems with surrogacy law, embryo storage law, embryo testing and donor information rights.
We welcome the Department of Health’s announcement today that embryos which exceed their five year storage period before 1 October 2009 will not now have to be destroyed (article in the Times today).
We have been in contact with the Department of Health on this issue for some time, arguing the case for various couples who are fighting to save their embryos because they were stored too early to benefit from new rules coming into force on 1 October. These couples include Melanie and Robert Gladwin from Gloucester, who stored embryos in anticipation of Melanie’s treatment for cancer in 2003 in order to preserve their chance of having a family, but who were told their embryos would be allowed to perish because their storage period expires before 1 October. Robert and Melanie’s story was reported in the Daily Telegraph on 7 August and is covered again today in response to the government’s announcement. Robert and Melanie, who have been fighting to save their embryos, have won political support for their campaign and yesterday were invited to present a petition at 10 Downing Street. They are not the only couple to fall into this gap in the law. Michelle Hickman has also been a vocal campaigner on this issue for several years, and there may be many other couples who are affected.
In response to today’s decision that such ‘out of time’ embryos can now be stored for at least ten years, Melanie Gladwin has said: “We are ecstatic at the news from the Department of Health. It has been a tiresome and stressful time and are extremely thankful they have been able to consider our case so promptly. We eagerly await further news that we can keep our embryos for the full period. We hope this announcement brings joy to the other couples and families affected like us.”
Natalie Gamble, representing Robert and Melanie, says: “While the announcement today gives much needed hope to men and women whose precious embryos have already reached the end of their five year storage term, we need to make sure that the proposed changes go far enough to give the time needed. For young women who suffer infertility prematurely, these embryos in storage often represent their last chance of having a child of their own. We will be looking very closely at the proposals to confirm that couples like Robert and Melanie will be able to extend their chance of having a much-wanted child for as long as possible, and not just for a few more years.”
Further note to this blog on 11 September 2009:
We are also now delighted to report that the Department of Health has now confirmed that, after the publication of the Minister’s Order, additional special regulations will be made to ensure that ‘out of time’ embryos like Robert and Melanie’s will be able to be stored, not just for ten years, but for the full extended period normally allowed for these kinds of medical situations.
More information on embryo storage law is on our website.
Natalie Gamble was interviewed on the BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast Show this morning about the new rights for same sex partners to be named on the birth certificates of children they conceive together.
For lesbian couples, new rules allow the non birth mother to be named as the child’s other parent if the couple conceive through donor insemination or IVF together. Although the law change came into force on 6 April 2009, it only applies to children conceived after that date. The government has calculated that, allowing for some early arrivals, this means the soonest a child could be born under the new rules is 1 September 2009. From tomorrow, therefore, registrars around the UK will be prepped and ready to register births showing two women as a child’s parents.
On the Radio 5 Breakfast Show, Natalie was also asked whether gay men could also be named on birth certificates together. As Natalie explained, gay men conceiving with a surrogate mother will be able to obtain a birth certificate showing them both as parents, but that the changes for gay couples are coming into effect later. Gay men, like heterosexual couples, will have to apply to court for a reissue of the birth certificate after a surrogacy birth. They will be able to make such applications from 6 April 2010 although, unlike the new rules for lesbian couples, applications can be made for children born before the law changed.
We welcome the changes to both the donor conception and surrogacy rules to cover gay and lesbian parents. The move represents an important step forward in recognising gay and lesbian families, and ensuring that two parents who commit to having a child together are both legally recognised as being responsible for that child.
More information on lesbian conception law from our website.
More information on surrogacy law from our website.
Leading legal journal Family Law has published our article (The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008: Revolution or Evolution?) which looks at how the 2008 Act was heralded in Parliament as the first major update of UK fertility law in 18 years, and asks whether it has really made assisted reproduction law fit for the twenty-first century. The article puts the new legislation in context, examining the history of UK fertility law and how it has developed, explaining the changes introduced by the 2008 Act (in particular the new rights for same sex parents which are dealt with in a practical case study) and highlighting some of the remaining problems for fertility patients and parents conceiving through assisted reproduction and in alternative family structures.
More on fertility treatment law from our website.
More on lesbian conception law from our website.
Glossy magazine DIVA has included Natalie in its ‘Power 50′ list of the 50 most influential gay women in Britain. Natalie’s write-up mentions her involvement with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 and the new rights it gives to gay and lesbian parents, as well as her nomination by Stonewall for their 2008 Hero of the Year Award.
“I am flattered and honoured to be included” says Natalie. “We have seen enormous strides over the past few years towards legal equality for gay and lesbian families. I am proud to have helped champion changes in fertility law which help same sex parents to be treated in the same way as other couples when they conceive with donor sperm or through surrogacy.”
DIVA’s list also includes household names such as TV presenters Sue Perkins and Sandy Toksvig and actresses Fiona Shaw and Miriam Margolyes, as well as politicians, public figures and other leading professionals in their fields. Read ‘Power 50: Britain’s most influential gay women‘.
More on the law for lesbian couples conceiving together from the Gamble and Ghevaert website.