My son can’t get an Irish ID because I didn’t give birth to him
Passport request rejected
AN Irish newly-wed who has just had a baby with her same-sex wife in Britain has been denied a passport for her 11-week-old son because she did not give birth to the child.
Katie Gallagher, 34, was upset to receive the letter from the Passport and Visa Office refusing her a passport for her son because she is technically neither the mother nor father of little Griffin.
However, her own fertilised egg were implanted in her wife’s womb as part of an IVF process to have the child.
Katie and her wife, Holly Groombridge, 31, who live in Suffolk, underwent two attempts at IVF before a successful implantation with Katie’s egg and an anonymous sperm donor, sourced through a US sperm bank.
However, because British-born Holly gave birth to Griffin, she is automatically named as mother on the birth-cert, leaving Katie to be recognised under the heading of ‘parent’.
Outdated Irish laws define parents as only mother or father and offer no alternative title.
So, as Katie fails to qualify as mother or father and Holly has no Irish blood, the Passport Office has refused their application.
In a devastating letter, they Rejection: The letter, above and right, received by Katie wrote that while recognising that Katie is an Irish citizen, ‘for the purposes of Irish law, and in particular in this case, for the purposes of the 1956 Act, the mother of a child is the person who gives birth to the child, or a female adopter... In this case, as Ms Groombridge gave birth to your son, she is, therefore, regarded as the mother.’
Katie, who was born in Gweedore, Co. Donegal, but was raised in Ashbourne, Co. Meath, is determined to fight for her son to have an Irish passport.
Katie, who married Holly just last week after a six-year relationship, said she is heartbroken.
Because of the law, she will now have to get Griffin a British passport, which recognises both same sex relationships and surrogacy births.
‘I proposed to Holly while backpacking in Australia three years ago and when we returned to London, we knew it was the right time to start a family,’ she said.
‘We searched for a donor that bore a family resemblance to Holly in the hope that our baby would have similar features. After two failed IVF attempts, my embryo was successfully implanted. Amazingly, Griffin was born with ginger hair, like Holly.’ When he was born on August 18, Katie almost immediately applied for an Irish passport for him.
Of the refusal, Katie said: ‘The 1956 law still remains and because of that, I’ve been denied the right to give my son an Irish passport and bring him home under the Irish banner to see his grandparents in Ashbourne.’
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said yesterday: ‘Parts 2 and 3 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 provide for parentage through donor-assisted reproduction. These Parts are to be commenced, in due course by the Minister for Health. The Act makes provision for parentage to be assigned retrospectively, through a courtbased procedure, to the second member of a couple who have a donor-conceived child, but only where certain conditions are fulfilled. Where the conditions are not fulfilled, parentage will be assigned under current law, which means that only the woman who gives birth and the biological father may be included on the birth certificate. The position is the same for both heterosexual and same-sex couples.’
The couple say they have been in contact with Dublin TD, Katie O’Connell, who has been helping them and taking steps to change the legislation.
Katie is Griffin’s biological mother
THE case of Katie Gallagher, who has been denied an Irish passport for her infant son, presents a very difficult conundrum.
Put simply, the crux of the matter is that the 11-week-old was born in the UK to a surrogate mother who is also Ms Gallagher’s same-sex spouse. Regulations mean that the 34-year-old has been refused a passport for him by the Department of Foreign Affairs because she is not listed as ‘mother’ on the birth certificate.
The world is moving at a quicker pace than ever. It is clear in this instance that legislation is needed, both here and globally, to make sure we are up to date with the quandaries that science presents us with every now and then.