5 - The Quest for Reproductive Equality

Summary

Chapter 5 examines the impact of gender, sexual orientation and civil status on access to ART and the enjoyment of family life formed through ART. Aspiring single parents, women in a relationship with a same-sex or transgender male partner, and men in a same-sex relationship are reliant on gamete donation (as well as, in the case of male couples, surrogacy) in order to have a biological child and are particularly disadvantaged by prohibitions on third-party reproduction. These remain, nonetheless, within States’ margin of appreciation. However, where a child was born following the use of donated gametes or surrogacy abroad, the Strasbourg Court requires measures of protection. Significantly, the relationship of surrogate-born children with the intended non-biological parent is equally protected whether the genetic father has an opposite-sex or same-sex spouse. The chapter criticises, however, the less favourable treatment of commissioning mothers based on a conservative understanding of motherhood as gestational.