Co-mother registration for lesbian couples

Last July, Act 19/2015 on administrative reforms in the field of Justice Administration and Civil Registration made changes to article 7.3 of Act 14/2006 on human assisted reproduction techniques, making it clearer than before and providing for equality between heterosexual and lesbian couples.

The new law states that ‘When a woman is married to another woman and there has been no legal or de facto separation, the latter, in accordance with the Law on Civil Registry, may agree to her parentage of the child born unto her partner.‘

This allows for co-mother registration of children who are born as a result of assisted reproduction techniques in lesbian couples. This covers all techniques used including artificial insemination, in vitro fertilisation, egg donation or eggs taken from the partner (LGBT) and, in all cases, with donated sperm.

Since the Spanish Civil Code introduced the option of marriage between same-sex couples in 2005, several changes have been made in order to establish equality between lesbian and heterosexual couples. Article 6.3 of Act 14/2006 calls for the consent of both partners, regardless of which of the two female partners undergoes the techniques and, as mentioned, this implies co-mother registration.

However, despite the above, there is still a long way to go before achieving total equality between heterosexual and lesbian couples in the field of assisted reproduction since, although all couples are now considered equal, this is not true of unmarried female couples. Such couples do not have any legal support in the field since there is no specific legislation to turn to. They can only opt for going to court to demand legal equality to heterosexual couples or, alternatively, the biological mother’s partner may go through a tedious adoption process.

 We hope that legislation continues to progress in this field.

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