Below are a number of scenarios to explain the legal parenthood of couples looking to conceive either through a fertility clinic or at home.
A couple in a civil partnership who conceive at a fertility clinic. If you and your partner are in a civil partnership when you conceive, and you conceived through a fertility clinic after 6 April 2009, you will automatically both be considered parents with parental responsibility from the moment you are inseminated or an embryo or gamete is transferred to the womb. Both of you will be listed on the birth certificate.
If you have used a donor supplied by the clinic, or have provided your own donor, he will not legally be a parent of your child.Ooo
A couple, not in a civil partnership, who conceive at a fertility clinic. If you and your partner are not in a civil partnership at the time you conceive, and you conceived through a fertility clinic in the UK after 6 April 2009, you will both be considered legal parents so long as both of you have completed and signed the relevant forms, as parents, at the clinic before you conceive.
In this case, you will be considered parents from the moment you are inseminated or an embryo or gamete is transferred to the womb. Both of you can be listed on the birth certificate, provided that you attend the birth registration together. If the non-birth mother is not named on the birth certificate, she will be a legal parent but will not have parental responsibility.
If you have used a donor supplied by the clinic, or have provided your own donor, he will not legally be a parent of your child.
A couple in a civil partnership who conceive at home (or anywhere in the world outside the UK) with a donor. If you and your partner are in a civil partnership and conceive at home using a donor, you and your partner will automatically be considered legal parents with parental responsibility, provided that you conceive by artificial insemination (i.e. not by sexual intercourse).You will both be considered parents from the moment you are inseminated. Both of you will be listed on the birth certificate.
The donor will not be a legal parent of your child.You must be in a civil partnership at the time of conception in order for this to be valid.
A couple, not in a civil partnership, who conceive at home (or at a clinic outside the UK) with a donor. If you conceive at home (or outside the UK) using a donor but are not in a civil partnership at the time of conception, the birth mother (the one who gives birth to the child) is considered a legal parent, but the non-birth mother is not, unless she later goes through an adoption process.
The donor will be considered the legal father and may be recorded on the bir th cer tificate if the bir th mother and donor attend the birth registration together. Naming the donor on the birth certificate will give him parental responsibility and may affect your ability to later apply for an adoption order to give the non-birth mother legal status.
The adoption process. The above rules do not apply to children conceived before 6 April 2009. If you have a child conceived before 6 April 2009, the birth mother (the partner who gives birth) is a legal parent, but the non-birth mother (her partner) has no automatic recognition as a parent, even if you are civil partners. It is, however, possible to go through a legal process to acquire parental status for the non-birth mother.
The non-birth mother will also need to go through this process in respect of children conceived after 6 April 2009 if you:
Conceive through home insemination and you are not civil partners at the time you conceive
Conceive outside the UK and you are not civil partners at the time you conceive
Or conceive through sexual intercourse with a man
The process differs from social service to social service, and in Scotland the process may vary, but it generally follows this format.
Hope this helps
