Reported by several news sites, including the Brisbane Times from Australia, a complicated child custody battle that involves a lesbian couple and an international child abduction, has been more than a little complicated for domestic, and foreign, courts to reach a final decision on.
Two former Florida police officers, once joined in a lesbian relationship for over ten years, had a baby together where one donated an egg and the other carried the baby. Two years after the girl was born the couple separated.
The daughter they shared in conceiving and raising, now eight, has since been removed from the U.S. and taken to Australia by the birth mother.
The birth mother took the child without the knowledge of her former partner – who refers to herself as the biological mother as she had donated the egg.
The Florida Supreme Court is know taxed with the job of making a ground-breaking decision on the case, it if chooses to consider it.
A trial judge ruled in favor of the birth mother – saying the biological mother has no parental rights under state law.
The Daytona Beach 5th District Court of Appeal overturned the decision and sided with the biological mother – saying that both women have parental rights.
There are two issues at stake: One is the law that regulates sperm and egg donation and whether the law lends itself to outside-the-body technologies. The second issue is if gay couples will be given the same constitutional rights as straight couples to raise children and claim equal protection.
The biological mother has an Australian lawyer, Robert Segal, who said that his client is not interested in being part of a landmark decision. Segal said, “She hasn't seen her daughter in years, and it's been terribly difficult.”
To have their child with “reproductive medial assistance”, per court documents, was agreed on by the couple.
In regards to the couple separating, the appellate decision read, “Their separation does not dissolve the parental rights of either woman, nor does it dissolve the love and affection either has for the child.”
The birth mother cited state law on sperm and egg donation in her argument and wrote that donors must “relinquish all maternal or paternal rights.” The trial judge, however, in ruling for the birth mother said, “If you appeal this, I hope I’m wrong.”
The appellate judges, in a two to one decision, found that the biological mother wasn’t a donor because the intention of the two women was to have a child together and parent the child together.
Vanessa Matthews, a family lawyer in Victoria, said that non-commercial surrogacy is legal in Victoria – and has been since last year. The Family Law Act oversees cases on children that are conceived through IVF.
Whether you have been faced with child abduction or your rights as a homosexual parent, you must contact a family law attorney for help in regaining your parental rights.