Sperm Donor Given Access Rights

By Contributing Writer on Friday, December 11, 2009 - 16:27

Editor’s Note: This article was written by the team of gaelick.com, an award-winning Irish website for LGBT-news.

The Supreme Court has judged that the sperm donor to a lesbian couple should have access rights to the child born from his donated sperm. The man, known as ‘A’, had agreed in 2005 that he would not assume the role of father to any child born of the arrangement, but would be a ‘favourite uncle’. He went as far as to sign an agreement ensuring that this would remain the case.

In 2006, a child was born and A changed his mind. He went to the High Court seeking guardianship and access rights and was refused. At that time the Court stated that the lesbian couple and the child were a “de facto family”.

Today [December 10, ed.], however, the Supreme Court has ruled that there is no such thing in Ireland as a de facto family. In a unanimous decision the Court upheld the High Court’s order that he not be given guardianship of the child but overruled the decision on access. So, the lesbian couple and the man in question are to sort out access rights between them.

This is a scary precedent for lesbians and gay men who have, or wish to have, children. It’s also worrying and confusing for the children involved. You would always hope that adults can sort things out in the best interests of the child, without heading off to court, but sometimes an impartial judgment is necessary.

Except we can’t, legally, get a fair judgement as we aren’t afforded the same rights as our straight counterparts. Both of these mothers obviously went in with their eyes open as they got their gay male friend to sign an agreement.

You can’t blame the man for having a change of heart, as unfair as it is to the mothers. Undoubtedly, the John Waters of the world will herald this as a bright new day, a just decision giving more rights to fathers and about time too as fathers aren’t just for Christmas and so on ad nauseum. However, this man didn’t want to be a father. He didn’t go into this hoping to have a baby, he went in hoping to help his friends.

And what about the other mother? She is actually raising the child with her partner. She has no rights here. Zero. Legally, she just happens to live with the baby’s mother.

We need legislation in this area. We need the child to be protected and all three parents’ rights to be respected. This is a family unit and should be seen as one. One of, if not the, greatest negative of the Civil Partnership Bill is that there are no adoption rights for non-biological parents. So cases like this will continue to occur.