The Guardian has reported the case of NGA client Mark Langridge, who donated his sperm to a lesbian couple who conceived two children in 1998 and 2000. More than a decade on, the lesbian mothers have split and Mark is being pursued by the CSA for maintenance.
Having been advised by NGA solicitor Sarah Wood-Heath, Mark spoke out in the Guardian’s Saturday Money section about the unfairness of the law in holding him financially responsible. The article also quotes Natalie, who was interviewed this week on the story on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio London.
As specialist lawyers who have advised on cases like these for many years (including the case of Andy Bathie, which received worldwide press coverage back in 2008), we know that the law on this is black and white – whether you are financially responsible depends on whether you are legally the ‘father’.
A sperm donor is the legal father, whether or not he appears on the birth certificate, unless:
- he donates his sperm through a licensed clinic (without planning an ongoing role if he knows the recipients), or
- he donates to a married couple, or
- he donates, after April 2009, to a lesbian couple who are civil partners.
In all other cases (including private donations to single women, unmarried couples and lesbian couples before April 2009) there is no financial protection for sperm donors. It often shocks people to learn that any verbal or written agreement that the donor would have no financial responsibility is completely irrelevant.
Should the law be changed? Mark Langridge certainly thinks so. The law is particularly cruel in his case, since in 1998 and 2000 it would have been difficult for him to have donated to the mothers via a clinic to give him financial protection, and the law did not then (as it now does) hold both lesbian mothers legally and financially responsible.
The key message to others has to be to take great care before acting as a private donor. Make sure you structure things to protect yourself (by only donating to a married/civilly partnered couple or via a clinic) or at the very least that you understand the risk you are taking. There is more on our website about being a known sperm donor.
Kellen and Patricia, lesbian mums from New York who have a daughter and are now expecting twins, following egg swapping IVF – Patricia is the birth mother but she carried embryos created with Kellen’s eggs.
There is, in all this, one glaringly unsubtle problem, and that is surrogacy, which as a percentage affects gay men more than any other group. Commercial surrogacy is illegal in the UK, forcing many childless couples to seek help abroad. When they return, the British government is reluctant to endorse an arrangement that undermines public policy. “English law applies its own rules as to who the parents are, irrespective of what happens abroad,” says Natalie Gamble, the country’s leading fertility lawyer. “So even if you’re named as the parent on a US birth certificate, English law will say that the surrogate is the mother and if she’s married, her husband is the father.”
We have long campaigned for alternative families, both individually in court, and by arguing hard for changes to the law (including supporting the UK’s legal changes allowing gay dads and lesbian mums to be named on birth certificates together). Why do we do this? Because we believe that parents who love and cherish their children raise wonderful families, no matter what the structure.