Category: Declaration of Parentage

The case of FZ v MZ & FZ v Y Council [2025] EWHC 3338 (Fam) brings into focus legal difficulties encountered by a transgender man with a Gender Recognition Certificate in obtaining legal parenthood and birth registration for two children in England and Wales. It tested the law for the first time on whether he could be lawfully registered as father on his second child’s birth certificate following his wife’s privately arranged artificial conception with donor sperm outside of a licensed UK fertility clinic. It also necessitated a claim for Judicial Review to quash his incorrect registration on his first child’s birth certificate, there being no statutory power to enable the Registrar General to register afresh without leaving the initial registration manually struck through on the register of births and deaths. Louisa Ghevaert Associates acted for the Applicant (Claimant) in this case.