European Human Rights Court Orders France to Recognise Surrogate-Mother Children

France has the right to ban surrogate parenthood but not to refuse granting legal to parent-child relationships of children born to surrogate mothers, the ECHR ruled on Thursday.

The “legal guinea pigs”, as one father described them, were two families, the Mennessons and the Labassees, who have children born to surrogate mothers in the US, where the practise is legal in some states.

Twins, Valentina and Fiorella Menesson, were born in 2000 in California, having been conceived from their father’s sperm and a donor’s oocyte, and have US citizenship.

Juliette Labassee was born in Minnesota in 2001 in similar circumstances, and is also a US national.

Although a California court had recognised Dominique and Sylvie Menesson as the twins’ parents before their birth a long legal battle in France ended with the appeal court refusing the status.

Francis and Monique Labassee had appealed against an official refusal to recognise Juliette as their daughter.

The ECHR ruled that the French decision was an infringement of the children’s right to respect for their private life, while recognising France’s right to declare...