No leave for mother who used surrogate

An Irish teacher who had her baby through a surrogate mother has been told she was not entitled to maternity leave by the European Court of Justice.

She and her husband are the baby’s full genetic parents but, because she did not have a womb, they commissioned a woman in California to carry their baby.

But when she returned home with the baby, she was refused paid maternity leave and appealed to the Equality Authority on the basis that had she given birth or adopted the baby, she would have been entitled to leave.