The law changes slowly to fit modern Irish families
RELUCTANCE on the part of the State to intervene in the autonomy of the Irish family has given rise to a slow-moving and piecemeal approach to the regulation of family law issues.
This week, the Supreme Court is being asked to decide upon the law and policy that will govern the identity of the mother of children born as a result of a private surrogacy arrangement, given the repeated failure of respective governments to tackle the issues of surrogacy and assisted reproduction. Last year, Mr Justice Henry Abbott declared the parentage of the children in question to be directly linked to their genetic source, ordering that, in the absence of governing provisions, the genetic mother should be registered as their mother, on the basis that blood relationships are paramount in determining parenthood.
