Surrogacy: the ECHR does not advocate transcribing birth certificates

At the request of the French Court of Cassation, the ECHR issued an expected decision on the parentage of surrogate children on Wednesday: it states that recognition of this parentage is required in the “best interests of the child” but that this does not necessarily involve transcribing a birth certificate issued abroad. Each European state can choose the “mode” of recognition and hence proceed via adoption with regard the intended mother. “The right to respect for private life of children born abroad through surrogacy requires that domestic law provide for the possibility of recognising a parent-child relationship between that child and the intended mother, designated on the birth certificate legally established abroad as the ‘legal mother'”, states the ECHR in its advisory opinion. It then adds that it is important for “the procedures laid down by domestic law [to] ensure that they can be implemented promptly and effectively, in accordance with the child’s best interests”.