In the UK, lesbian partners to be named on birth certificates

Monday 31 August 2009 15.51 BST

From the guardian.co.uk:

Lesbian couples having children through fertility treatment granted same birth certificate rights as heterosexual couples. Lesbian couples who have children through fertility treatment can now register both their names on the birth certificate, following a change in the law.

The change, which applies to couples in England and Wales beginning fertility treatment on or after 6 April 2009, confers legal parenthood on a biological mother's female partner for the first time.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 granted lesbian couples equal rights as parents. The new regulations on the registration of births and deaths came into force today, although no child covered by the change will have been born yet.

Lord Brett, the Home Office minister, said: "This positive change means that, for the first time, female couples who have a child using fertility treatment have the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts to be shown as parents in the birth registration. It is vital that we afford equality wherever we can in society, especially as family circumstances continue to change. This is an important step forward in that process."

The Home Office said birth certificates would be made available with two "parent" sections, rather than mother and father.

Ruth Hunt, the head of policy and research of the lesbian, gay and bisexual group Stonewall, said life for lesbian families would become fairer and easier.

"As the law improves to provide further equality, knowing your new rights will help people make full use of the services they're entitled to," she said. "And, if discrimination occurs, the same knowledge can help them demand fair treatment. Now lesbian couples in the UK who make a considered decision to start a loving family will finally be afforded equal access to services they help fund as taxpayers."

Critics said the change in the law was a blow against the traditional family model.

"If we want to build a stable society, a mother and father and children works as the best model," the Conservative MP Nadine Dorries told the BBC. "We should be striving towards repairing and reinforcing marriage. I think this move sends out the exact opposite message."

Geraldine Smith, a Labour MP, agreed: "To have a birth certificate with two mothers and no father is just madness."

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said 728 lesbians underwent IVF treatment between 1999 and 2006.