The first baby with no mum

Transgender man who gave birth wants to be registered as ‘father’

‘Breach of right to a family life’

A HIGH Court judge is to rule on whether a baby should become the first to be born without a legal mother.

The baby’s natural mother, who had transgender treatment and lives as a man, appealed yesterday for the birth record to show only that the child has a father – or parent.

Mr Justice Francis called the claim a first in English law and said that the outcome may pile pressure on ministers to reform laws governing gender changes.

The case follows Theresa May’s promise last year that the government would bring in reforms to let people choose their own sex at will without needing medical documentation.

But no new law has yet been presented amid evidence that large numbers of the public are increasingly concerned over the impact of transgender rights.

The baby in the High Court case, who cannot be named, is the child of a single parent born a woman but now lives as a man after surgery. The mother has won official recognition of her new status as a man under existing gender law. He held his baby as he sat next to a lawyer at the hearing in London. At one point he stood to rock the baby to sleep as it sucked a dummy while lawyers discussed issues with the judge. Mr Justice Fran- cis was told he had been biologically able to get pregnant and give birth, but had legally become a man when the child was born.

The man wishes to be identified as the child’s father or parent on the birth certificate. But register office officials have said the law demands that anyone who gives birth to a child must be registered as the baby’s mother. The man is now suing the official in charge of register offices – Mark Thomson, Registrar general for England and Wales, a civil servant who also heads the Passport Office. He claims that the birth certificate mother rule is a breach of his right to family life under human rights law.

His claim says that forcing him to register as a mother is interference in his private life.

Mr Justice Francis said the issue had never been raised in a court before and that if the man won his fight, ministers might have to consider changing the law. He is to make a ruling after a full hearing due in September.

in yesterday’s preliminary hearing, the judge said reports should not reveal the baby’s gender or age, nor the man’s age, and should not give clues as to where the man and child lived. Lawyers say other transgender men have given birth but have been registered as mothers. The court heard how the man was born a woman but ‘realised he was trans’ several years ago.

He has lived as a man since then and has undergone surgery to ‘re-contour’ his upper body.