State against recognizing both lesbian partners as biological mothers

"Before approving ... artificial insemination, the Health Ministry made it clear that the woman who donated the egg would not [automatically] be considered the child's mother," Interior Ministry tells court.

By DAN IZENBERG
lesbians 88 (photo credit: )
lesbians 88
(photo credit: )
The state is opposed to allowing both partners in a lesbian couple to be registered as the biological mothers of their baby boy, even though one donated the egg and the other gave birth, the Tel Aviv District Attorney's Office informed Tel Aviv District Court in a response released Sunday. The brief, submitted by the state's representative, Attorney Orly Manzur, came in response to a suit filed by the couple, whose names cannot be published, demanding that the Interior Ministry register both partners as the child's biological mothers. "Before approving the request for artificial insemination, the Health Ministry made it clear that the woman who donated the egg would not [automatically] be considered the child's mother and that if she wanted to be, she would have to adopt him," Manzur told the court. This is the first time that both women in a lesbian partnership have played a physical role in the birth of a baby, and as such have both asked to be recognized as biological mothers. As a result of earlier High Court of Justice decisions, the state today accepts that both parents in a lesbian or homosexual relationship may be recognized as parents of the child - at least one of them, however, by adoption. In this case, the woman who bore the child had fertility problems. The couple decided that the other partner would conceive the child through artificial insemination and then transfer the fetus to the woman who gave birth. In their lawsuit, the couple claimed that the right to be a biological parent was one of the most important foundations of human existence and belonged to the realm of human rights. They also argued that the good of the child made it necessary that the genetic mother also be the legal mother for the sake of the child's mental health, security, stability and the continuity of the connection between parent and child, and also from an economic point of view since the parent-child relationship granted many rights and would provide the child with greater economic security.