HONG KONG: A Hong Kong High Court judge has ruled in favour of a lesbian woman seeking to have her partner registered as a parent on their child’s birth certificate.
Justice Russell Coleman delivered the landmark judgment on Tuesday in the case involving reciprocal in vitro fertilisation (RIVF).
The couple, who remain anonymous by court order, previously won a 2023 legal battle establishing the non-birth mother as a “parent at common law”.
The judge previously determined that Hong Kong’s family laws constituted discrimination against same-sex parents.
The Department of Justice had refused to re-register the birth certificate despite the earlier ruling, claiming no legal basis existed for such changes.
This refusal prompted the couple to initiate fresh legal proceedings against the Hong Kong government.
Justice Coleman ruled that excluding both women from the birth certificate would seriously interfere with the child’s fundamental rights.
He highlighted potential medical emergency scenarios where administrators might need immediate parental consent decisions.
The absence of official registration for one parent would create real doubt about her parental status within the family unit.
The child would likely experience inconvenience, embarrassment, and potential harm to personal dignity without proper documentation.
The court has requested both parties to present further arguments regarding appropriate remedies and establish a implementation timetable.
The couple welcomed the recognition that their child’s equal protection rights had been infringed, calling the declaration helpful.
Reciprocal IVF allows two women to share the childbearing process using one partner’s egg and the other carrying the pregnancy.
The procedure emerged in the late 2000s and is now available without restrictions in numerous European countries.
Since Hong Kong doesn’t recognise same-sex marriage, the couple married and underwent the RIVF procedure in South Africa. – AFP
