No discrimination against mother of surrogate-born, European court rules

The European Court of Justice has found that a teacher in Ireland was not discriminated against when she was denied paid leave after the birth of her child through a surrogacy arrangement.

The woman, who is referred to as Ms Z, was refused adoptive leave by the Department of Education after her child was born to a surrogate mother in California.

She took her case to the Equality Tribunal which sought an opinion from the European Court on whether she had been discriminated against on grounds of gender or disability.