For the last four months, dozens of newborns have been
caught in a legal limbo in Spain, which has been refusing to recognize their
parents or grant them any rights as Spanish citizens.
The babies were born to surrogate
mothers, a practice that is banned in Spain. Dozens of heterosexual and
same-sex couples who went abroad to hire
surrogates have found they are unable to
include their children on the Civil Registry, a necessary step toward attaining
citizenship and the rights it brings.
According to an association
representing the families, the problem stems from an adverse ruling handed down
by the Supreme Court in February of this year that led Spanish consulates
abroad to stop registering babies born to surrogates.
Now, affected couples are pinning
their hopes on the European Court of Human Rights, which has condemned the
French state for maintaining similar policies. The Spanish government admits
that the European ruling is also binding for Spain, and that it is analyzing
legal ways to implement it, according to Justice Ministry undersecretary Juan
Bravo.
Even before the Strasbourg decision
was made public, the Spanish Justice Ministry had expressed a desire to do
something about the situation, at least in the case of babies born in the
United States, where surrogacy is legal and is supervised by judicial
authorities.
Two weeks ago, the Cabinet approved
a bill that made some progress on the issue. But families say it is not enough.
In the meantime, these babies are
living in Spain on their American passport, while stuck in an administrative no
man’s land.
The 2006 Assisted Reproduction Law
declared void any contract signed with a woman who agrees to see a pregnancy to
term on behalf of another party, regardless of whether she is paid to do so or
not. Even so, demand has grown in recent years as couples circumvent the law by
traveling to countries where surrogacy is legal.
Around 800 Spanish couples resort
to surrogate mothers in the US every year, according to advocacy group Son
Nuestros Hijos (They are our kids).
The dilemma is, how to register
those children back in Spain so they will have the same rights as other
Spaniards. For years, registry workers did not make too much trouble, according
to this association and to several lawyers and civil servants consulted by EL
PAÍS. Embassies copied the US birth certificate word for word, where the
couple’s name showed up as the child’s legal parents, and nobody asked any
questions.
Couples
are pinning their hopes on the European Court of Human Rights, which has
condemned France for similar policies
But that was when the couples were
heterosexual. Following the 2005 law that allowed same-sex marriage and
adoption in Spain, male couples also began hiring surrogate mothers. This made
it more obvious to consulate workers that the babies had been born through
surrogacy, and they began to hesitate. In October 2010, the Justice Ministry
ordered registrars to act cautiously, given the increased demand for surrogate
mothers in countries such as India and Ukraine, where no legal oversight is
provided and it is harder to know whether the surrogate mother acted freely or
out of duress.
It was decided to demand a court
ruling from the country of origin confirming the validity of the surrogacy.
This was not a problem for couples in the US.
But in February of this year, the
Supreme Court ruled that this practice violated the 2006 ban on surrogacy, and
that the baby can only be registered if one of the parents can prove his
paternity and the other formally adopts the child.
The Strasbourg court uses opposing
arguments to condemn France, holding that the rights of the child are above the
need to respect existing laws.
“We are now forced to introduce
legal modifications to adjust our laws to the Strasbourg interpretation, and we
will,” promises Bravo.
(http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/07/04/inenglish/1404469559_678105.html)
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