Category: Legal Parentage - Page 5

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13
Jul
2023

Declaration of Parentage: When Might I Need One?

Applications for a Declaration of Parentage can have significant and wide-ranging legal, practical, financial and emotional implications for individuals, parents, children and families. They can change established family history and introduce new narratives associated with adoption, unplanned pregnancy, secret love affairs, failed relationships and loss. They can uncover fertility fraud or even egg, sperm or embryo mix-ups at fertility clinics. They can also create complex issues with genetic relatives and legal family members.

14
Mar
2023

Declaration of Parentage Applications: The Significance of Legal and Biological Parenthood

The Family Court has heard a number of applications for a Declaration of Parentage recently. In November 2022, it determined an application by Amy Boudewijn for a Declaration that the late Errol Washington Johnson was her biological father. In February 2022, the Family Court also heard an application for a Declaration of Parentage where the status of legal parenthood was in doubt due to administrative errors made by clinic staff during fertility treatment.

19
Jul
2022

Declaration of parentage: the importance of identity, status and birth certificates

In X v Y [2022] EWFC 77, the applicant applied to the English Family Court for a declaration of parentage following a 35-year search for her biological father to resolve issues relating to her identity and her birth certificate. In granting the application, the court navigated complex legal issues and drew inferences from the respondent’s refusal to undergo DNA testing and lack of opposition to the application. As such, X v Y [2022] EWFC 77 brings into close focus the importance of identity, status and parentage and the re-registration of birth certificates to provide properly maintained records not just for the benefit of individuals but for the public as well.

15
Jun
2022

DNA testing, parentage disputes and the law

DNA testing can create unexpected issues and outcomes that have a far wider impact on people’s lives than they ever imagined. They can include unforeseen discoveries about conception, maternity and paternity, unknown siblings and relatives. They can also uncover family secrets and stories of loss and infidelity, as well as IVF mix-ups, fertility fraud, donor conception and adoption that can upend the lives of individuals and families. In turn, these discoveries can result in complex legal disputes about parentage, birth certificates, contact and upbringing of a child, child maintenance and inheritance, negligence as well as evolving issues about the use of personal genetic information. Given the rapidly evolving landscape associated with DNA testing, it is important to obtain specialist legal advice to identify, manage and resolve the complex and far-reaching legal and practical issues and outcomes.

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