• FAQs for patients
  • Sex selection
  • Treatment
  • Transferring, importing and exporting from abroad
  • Parenthood
• FAQs for donors
• FAQs for clinic staff
• FAQs about the HFEA

These FAQs are written as though the reader is the woman who is to receive treatment and carry the child. 
 

I am in a civil partnership and we plan to use donor sperm, or embryos created using donor sperm. This will take place on or after 6th April. How will the new parenthood law affect us?

Your partner will automatically be recognised as the child’s second legal parent, unless she explicitly states that she did not consent to your treatment.  There is a section in the new consent forms that asks this question.

If you have treatment using donor sperm or embryos created using donor sperm and your partner has explicitly stated that she does not consent to your treatment, she will not be the child’s second legal parent.  The child will have no second legal parent.

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My clinic has or is planning to carry out donor insemination or embryo transfer before the 6th April. Is there any way these parenthood rules can be applied to my treatment?

No, this is not possible.  The new law only applies to treatments carried out on or after 6th April. It cannot be applied retrospectively.

The appropriate consents must also be signed and dated on or after 6th April.  These consents must be given before embryo transfer or insemination takes place.

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I am in a lesbian relationship and we are planning to use my partner’s eggs, but I would carry the child. How does the new parenthood law apply to us?

If you give birth to a child, you will be that child’s mother, whether the eggs used are your own or your partner’s.

In order to provide eggs for your treatment, your partner will need to register as a donor and complete a donor consent form.

If you are in a civil partnership, your partner will automatically be the child’s legal second parent, unless she explicitly states that she does not consent to your treatment. There is a specific section on the consent form that asks this question. 

If you are not in a civil partnership, it is possible for your partner to be the legal second parent if you both consent to this. 

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More parenthood FAQs

• General FAQs about the new parenthood law

FAQS about what the new law means for:

• married couples using the husband’s sperm
• married couples using donor sperm or donor embryos
• female civil partners using donor sperm
• couples who are not married or in a civil partnership
• male same-sex couples planning surrogacy arrangements
• single women using donor sperm
• FAQs on birth registration and parental orders
• FAQs about parenthood after death
• What clinics need to know

Page last updated: 14 April 2009

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