Supreme Court considers lesbians' battle over child
The Supreme Court is to consider whether a child caught in a battle between her same-sex ‘mothers’, is subject to British justice.
The 7-year-old girl was conceived using IVF and an anonymous donor.
When the two women ended their same-sex relationship in 2011, the girl continued to live with her biological mother, only seeing the second woman on a limited basis.
Last year, the biological mother, who is the child’s sole legal parent, moved with her daughter to Pakistan, prompting her former same-sex partner to take legal action. She asked for the girl to be made a ward of the court and returned to the UK.
Both the High Court and the Court of Appeal ruled that they did not have jurisdiction over the girl, since she was not resident in the UK at the time that legal proceedings began.
Now the Supreme Court is to consider whether the common law principle of parens patriae means that an English court does have jurisdiction, because the girl is a British subject.
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Related Coverage:
Test case for parental rights as estranged lesbians fight over daughter (Times £)
Estranged lesbian couple's fight over child goes to supreme court (Guardian)
