A very troubling ruling out of France that might dissuade other French couples struggling with infertility from pursuing surrogacy in the United States:

France’s highest court of appeal ruled Wednesday that the children of a French couple born to an American surrogate mother should not be given French citizenship. The decision by the court in Paris is a setback to attempts by Sylvie and Dominique Mennesson to have their twin girls recognized as French.

Surrogacy – an arrangement in which a woman carries and gives birth to a child on behalf of another woman, usually because the woman cannot physically have children – is prohibited in France. The surrogate mother of Isa and Lea was implanted with embryos formed from eggs donated by a friend of the couple and sperm from Dominique Mennesson.

The High Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that the children could not be listed on the French register of births, marriages and deaths, which is a necessary step towards obtaining French citizenship. The attorney general’s office had said it was favourable to the children, who have US citizenship, being added to the register.

The couple said they were ‘appalled’ by the ruling and vowed to appeal the decision to the European Court of Human Rights.