New laws to be drafted for same-sex parent status

Wednesday 14 April 2021

New laws are to be drafted that would allow same-sex couples and those in civil partnerships to be given parental responsibility.

The Assistant Minister for Children and Education, Deputy Scott Wickenden, signed off the instruction to draw up the new legislation last week.

Currently, couples in civil partnerships and same-sex relationships are not automatically given the same parental status as those in married partnerships.

Pictured: The instructions say to draft laws that would see same sex partners "registered as a child’s legal parents and therefore named on a Jersey birth certificate."

Only the birth mother in a same-sex civil partnership is given parental status and responsibility following artificial insemination, with the other woman in the relationship having to adopt the child or seek a residential order to get the same recognition.

A report summing up the aims of the new law outlines how the department wish to change the law so that:

• Opposite sex civil partners can get legal parent status and parental responsibility in the same way as a married couple
• Same sex parents can both be registered as a child’s legal parents and named on a Jersey birth certificate
• As far as possible, same sex parents are automatically conferred parental responsibility
• There is legal recognition enabling parents whose child is born to a surrogate mother, to become legal parents in Jersey
• A child whose parents are married or in a civil partnership can be recognised as legitimate, whether that be in a same-sex or opposite-sex relationship.

However, it should be noted that these rules for same-sex couples would only apply to children born as a result of artificial insemination.

Pictured: The new rules would also give opposite-sex couples in civil partnerships the same status and responsibility as married couples

The instructions also request that the Royal Court will also be able to make a parental order for a child with a Jersey birth certificate, allowing the Royal Court to reallocate parental status – a process that islanders currently have to go through the UK for. 

This application for a parental order must be made within a six-month period beginning on the date of the child’s birth.

Furthermore, it adds instructions for a stepparent agreement to be recognised in Jersey, which would allow stepparents to acquire parental responsibility via a ‘stepparent parental responsibility agreement.’

Additionally, the instruction notes that the Assisted Reproductive Unit at the hospital, which currently is an unlicensed clinic, will be included in legislative provisions to govern the acquisition of legal parent status and parental responsibility for couples who choose artificial insemination.