Irish Supreme Court

A gay man in Ireland has issued legal proceedings in the Irish courts to secure parental rights for his genetic twin children born following a surrogacy arrangement in India. The man is reported to be in a relationship with a non Irish citizen. The arrangement took place before the Indian Government introduced legislation in 2013 prohibiting foreign gay couples and single individuals embarking on surrogacy arrangements (the new legislation now states that couples seeking to enter in a surrogacy arrangement in India must be a heterosexual couple who have been married for at least 2 years).

The current proceedings come following a number of landmark surrogacy cases in the Irish courts. Last year the Irish High Court granted a declaration that the genetic mother of surrogate twins was the mother of those twins and was entitled to have that recorded on the children’s birth certificates in the case of MR & Anor v An tArd Chlaraitheoir & Ors [2013] IEHC 91 (to read the judgment click this link).