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Children's Name Change Process
Child Accidents Compensation Liability
Children Making Legal Decisions
Reasons For Absence From School
Expulsion of a Child From School
School and Special Needs Statutory Assessment
Do I have Parental Responsibility
Emergency Protection Orders for Children
Purposes of Emergency Protection Orders
Private Law Orders in Child Protection
State Intervention Child Welfare
Welfare Principle in Family Law
Hague Convention for Child Abduction
Child Abduction: Brussels P Regulations in the European Convention
Travel Disqualification with Child Maintenance
Ever wondered who were legally your parents? A question that may people may face where there are possible issues with paternity, adoption, foster care, surrogacy, sperm donations and many more complications surrounding parenthood. Who is legally your parents can have a great impact on many of the decisions made in your life especially during your childhood and before the legal age to make your own decisions. Discovering who your parents are legally can help find the answers to many questions.
There are three categories that a parent could fall into:
Basically the birth mother and genetic father of the child
Including surrogate mothers and sperm donors
These are the parents that have raised the child(ren) but are not genetically linked. This could occur in situations where the child may be adopted whether by family friends or complete strangers.
Historically the law has only ever chosen to identify two parents, one male and one female. This position has now changed in line with our ever evolving society
It was also the approach by UK law to preserve the Nuclear Family, the law now accepts all types of parenting with great emphasis being placed on the surrounding circumstances.
The woman who gives birth to the child will be the child’s legal mother, even if she is not genetically related to the child.
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 s33(1) ‘The Woman who is carrying or has carried a child as a result of the placing in her an embryo or a sperm and eggs, and no other woman, is to be treated as the mother of the child’
The Genetic/Biological father will usually be considered the legal father. However there are exceptions to this rule. There is a presumption of paternity of a child to a married woman is the husband, the presumption of paternity if a man’s name appears on a child’s birth certificate and to children born as a result of fertility treatments. All these presumptions are reputable and evidence confirming the paternity is the best way to rebut such a presumption.
Where a child is born following the placing of an embryo or eggs in a woman, if the woman was married, and the Husband sperm was not used, the husband will be treated as the legal father, unless it is shown that he did not consent to the treatment.
Where a child is born following the placing of an embryo or eggs and sperm into a woman, or following artificial insemination, if the woman was in a civil partnership, the civil partner is to be treated as the child’s parent unless it is shown and proven that she did not consent to the treatment.
If neither the rules regarding a mother’s husband nor civil partner apply then the unmarried male partner may be treated as the father if the man was alive at the time of treatment , and donor sperm was used and the agreed ‘fatherhood conditions’ were satisfied
If neither of the above situations are relevant then a woman may be treated as the child’s other parent if, the woman was alive at the time of treatment and the agreed female parenthood conditions are satisfied. These conditions follow the same suit as those concerning fatherhood but with relation to a female not male.
Under s30 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (HFEA) , a parental order allows a married couple who are also the commissioning parents to apply for parenthood in surrogacy situations. This was subsequently replaced by s54 HEFA 2008, which extended the availability of parent orders to also cover situations concerning civil partners and parents in an enduring relationship.
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