The New Zealand Law Commission has published a new report on parenthood, which was put before the country's parliament last week. The report, called 'New Issues in Legal Parenthood', recommends a number of changes to existing laws, which the Law Commission says are necessary to reflect changing family structures and developments in reproductive technologies and DNA testing. Marian Hobbs, the minister in charge of the Law Commission, said that the proposals focus on the importance of children 'having clear rules about who were their parents and who had legal responsibility for them', especially the very small number of children conceived through artificial reproductive technologies.
According to the Commission's website, the report focuses on how the law determines who is a parent, and is guided by principles including the child's welfare and best interests, and the desirability of clarity and certainty at the earliest possible time in the child's life. It also focuses on 'the need for individuals to access information about their genetic and gestational parentage; the desirability of autonomy and collaboration in parenting; and the equality of children regardless of the circumstances of their creation or family form'.
One of the suggested legal reforms is to give donors of egg and sperm legal parenthood status - which could mean that a child has three parents. Donors would be able to 'opt in' to legal parenthood after agreeing with the other two parents. The role of the donor parent would be defined within a pre-birth agreement and the 'third parent' would be as liable to child support as the other two parents. The Commission also wants there to be a section on the birth certificate of a child conceived using donor gametes or surrogacy that can indicate that 'extra information' is available about the person's parentage. The report also highlights other technologies that have the potential to further complicate the legal parenthood of a child, for example the possibility for a child to be the result of combining three different sources of DNA. This could be achieved by replacing the nucleus of an egg with one from another woman, before it is fertilised with sperm.
Simon Maude, the Chairman of Family Law at New Zealand's Law Society said the recommendations have been a 'long time coming', as legal concepts of parenthood need to 'change with the times. He added that he was sure that the proposals would cause some controversy, but that a change was required to enable a system to deal with 'modern day issues'.
Sue Domanski, executive director of Fertility New Zealand, said that 'all parties have got to know where they stand in respect of parental rights'. She said 'there shouldn't be any confusion between a donor and a parent', adding that 'there should be a mechanism to extinguish the genetic parenthood of the donor in law, on the basis that donors don't enter the agreement in order to parent'.
Not everyone is happy with the new proposals. Barbara Stewart, spokeswoman for New Zealand First family affairs section said that 'New Zealanders should be asking just where the politically correct madness and experimentation with our children's future is going to stop'. The government of New Zealand should now respond to the proposals within six months.
Sources and References
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Changes to parenthood law tabled
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Parenting laws must be clear, says Fertility NZ
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New Issues in Legal Parenthood
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