Born To Surrogate Mother, Child In Quebec Has No Legal Mother

After years of unsuccessful attempts to become pregnant, a Quebec couple paid a surrogate mother to carry a child for them.  After the baby was born, the surrogate mother gave up her legal claim to the baby and the couple went to court to attempt to adopt the child.  However, according to the law in Quebec, surrogacy is illegal and, as such, the province’s court ruled that only the man has a legal claim to the child because his sperm was used to inseminate the surrogate’s egg.  The court ruled that the woman has no legal right to the child because she “cannot, by going through an adoption, bypass what is illegal.”  This ruling has the effect of leaving the child without a legal mother.

Under federal law, surrogacy is legal but with certain restrictions, such as the surrogate cannot receive any payment, other than reimbursement for expenses related to the pregnancy, for carrying the child.  The Quebec Court of Appeal ruled that the federal law is unconstitutional.  This issue is now under consideration by the Supreme Court of Canada.

The links to articles on the CBC website and in the national post are as follows:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/03/11/mtl-surrogate-baby-quebec-0311.html

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=1382832

The citation for the Quebec Court of Appeal case, in which it held that certain provisions of the federal Assisted Human Reproduction Act are unconstitutional, is as follows:

2008 CarswellQue 9848; EYB 2008-134817, J.E. 2008-1321, 298 D.L.R. (4th) 712