‘Why can’t both of our names be on our daughter’s birth cert?’
TV couple calls for law to recognise same-sex parents of surrogate children
CELEBRITY presenters and new parents Brian Dowling and Arthur Gourounlian have urged the Government to end the legal ‘no-man’s land’ around surrogacy in Ireland.
In an interview with the Irish Mail on Sunday, the Big Brother star and the Dancing With The Stars judge both said the lack of regulation surrounding surrogacy for gay couples was ‘totally confusing for us’.
Brian and Arthur were one of the first same-sex couples in Ireland to marry after the equality law was passed.
The couple said it has been tiresome having to battle for basic rights human rights such as marriage and parenthood.
‘The LGBT community have had to fight every single step of the way just for basic rights. It’s a constant battle,’ Brian told the MoS.
But fulfilling their dreams of becoming parents was a fight they weren’t going to back away from.
Just 10 weeks ago their daughter, Blake Rose Maria Dowling-Gourounlian, was born after Brian’s youngest sister Aoife acted as their surrogate.
Aoife was not the egg donor but is still
‘Aoife is named as Blake’s biological mother’
legally named as Blake’s birth mother on official documents.
And Brian and Arthur say this is an unacceptable scenario for the parents, the child and the surrogate.
‘Blake deserves to have both her parents’ names on the birth [cert]. Aoife is not the biological mother, but her name is on the birth cert. Why can’t both our names go on our daughter’s birth cert?’ asked Arthur.
‘Basically, in Ireland surrogacy is not regulated at all. So you’re kind of caught in the middle of a grey area.
‘We couldn’t have any treatment in Ireland when it came to find a donor egg. There was nowhere in Ireland you could go, so we had to go outside the State.
‘On the birth cert, Aoife is named as Blake’s biological mother and that’s not the case because we used a donor egg. Aoife was the carrier. So, as it stands at the moment, one of us doesn’t really have a lot of rights when it comes to our daughter.’
The couple’s call for action comes after a High Court judge this week criticised the Government’s communication of its plan to introduce legislation that would regularise overseas commercial surrogacy.
Judge John Jordan said he was dissatisfied to learn via the media that international surrogacy is to be recognised and regulated through legislation likely to come before the Cabinet this week.
The judge said the situation was unfair to the court and the couple at the centre of a case challenging Ireland’s lack of recognition of international surrogacy arrangements.
Judge Jordan spoke out following a weekend report that new legislation will see commercial surrogacy outlawed in Ireland, while permitted abroad.
International commercial surrogacy involves women in other countries being paid to carry and give birth to babies for Irish parents who subsequently bring their children back to Ireland.
The judge’s comments came on the fifth day of a hearing of an action brought by Kathy and Brian Egan, of Castlecomer Road in Kilkenny. One of the couple’s children was born in 2019 to a surrogate mother in Ukraine.
The Egans are asking the court to declare that the State’s failure to provide retrospective recognition of parentage of children born through surrogacy amounts to ‘invidious discrimination’ against their family.
They also want a declaration that the State has failed to vindicate their constitutional rights by failing to recognise Mrs Egan as the boy’s legal mother. Mr Egan, who has been diagnosed with cancer, is the child’s genetic and legal father.
While Mrs Egan is his genetic mother and legal guardian, a relationship that will cease when he turns 18, she is not legally recognised as his mother. In an affidavit, Mrs Egan said the couple were left in a ‘hopeless situation’ after she suffered eight miscarriages.
She said her son, whom she described as ‘a legal stranger’ to her, does not stand in the same position as his sibling with regard to family entitlements.
Judge Jordan adjourned the proceedings until next month after lawyers for the State asked for time to clarify the situation.
‘Don’t have a lot of rights in terms of our daughter’