Category: Parental Responsibility Law - Page 2

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06
Aug
2025

F v J & Others [2024] and the Pitfalls of Mismatched Expectations, Rushed Known Sperm Donation and Co-Parenting Arrangements

F v J & Others [2024[ EWHC 2802 (Fam) is a case which deals with the realities and challenges of co-parenting and highlights the complexities of known sperm donation - how it should be approached with great care and proactive management of the legal aspects which underpin these family building arrangements. Specifically, it raises issues of legal parentage in the context of known sperm donation and assisted reproduction, and what can happen when this process is rushed or hurried. Additionally, this case raises concerns around communication in co-parenting relationships, and stresses the importance of the stability of those relationships, both for the benefit of the parents, and for the wellbeing of the child.

25
Jul
2025

A Cautionary Tale About Informal Sperm Donation: P v Q & F (Child: Legal Parentage) [2024]

The 2024 cases P v Q and Others [2024] EWFC and of P v Q and F (Child: Legal Parentage) [2024] 85 EWCA Civ 878 highlight a series of complex legal issues related to parenthood, parental responsibility and birth registration for lesbian families conceiving with donor sperm. It involved an intricate legal dispute about the child’s legal parentage and the circumstances of a privately arranged conception; specifically whether it took place by artificial insemination or natural conception, that reached the Court of Appeal. It brings into focus the challenges of donor conception outside of a fertility clinic and ensuing difficulties navigating legal proceedings for a Declaration of Parentage in light of entangled disputes after a relationship breakdown.

23
Jun
2025

Modern Families Forum 2025

On 19 June 2025, Louisa Ghevaert had the pleasure of attending Resolution's Modern Families Forum 2025 in London. Lord Justice Peter Jackson delivered an illuminating keynote address on legal parentage and the challenges this can present for families when the circumstances of a child’s conception, parentage and parental responsibility fall into dispute. This was followed by a modern family law case update and sessions which grappled with the technicalities of who has or doesn’t have parentage and parental responsibility in law. It served as a reminder that modern family and assisted conception law continues to evolve rapidly and that it can create all sorts of tricky issues when people build or restructure families and parental status and rights are disputed.

20
Feb
2025

Judicial Warning & Naming 0f Serial Sperm Donor ‘Who Fathered 180 Children’

In a recently published family law case In the Matter of D [2023] EWFC 333, His Honour Judge Jonathan Furness KC took the unusual step to publicly name a serial sperm donor and warn the public and vulnerable women seeking to get pregnant of the dangers of unregulated private sperm donation. This followed a highly contested 2-year legal battle, described as a 'nightmare' and 'horror story', between a female same-sex couple and a prolific sperm donor who applied to court to be named on the child's birth certificate, obtain parental responsibility and contact with the child.

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