Getting Your Name on the Birth Certificate After a Surrogacy Birth
After all the struggles you endured your child has been born through the gift of a surrogate. You have been congratulated on becoming parents by everyone except the law. Canadian provincial laws recognize the woman who gives birth to a child as the mother. Currently, no provincial legislation automatically recognizes intended or biological mothers as the parent of a child born via a surrogate.
Whether you and your partner are both biologically related to the child or only your partner is related, you need to apply for a Declaration of Parentage in court. This process requires you to apply to a court to be declared the parents of your newborn.
You need to convince the court that you are indeed the biological and/or intended parent of the child born to you through a surrogate. The information you provide may vary depending on the particular concerns or questions of any given Court. As with most court procedures, family courts have particular rules that need to be followed before you are granted a court order for what you want. You then need to take this court order to the government department that collects information regarding births and they will then list you as the parents of the child. And while anyone can go to court for themselves, it is probably less time consuming, less costly and less frustrating to find a lawyer who has guided other couples through the process to help you.
Lawyers who have experience with Declarations of Parentage include:
Larry Kahn – B.C.
Nancy Lam – Ontario
Adele Savoie – New Brunswick
Terry Shepherd – Nova Scotia
The provinces which have granted Declarations of Parentage to biologically related and non biologically related parents include: British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Ontario. Provinces which have granted Declarations of Parentage to biologically related parents include: Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Quebec has legislation which will not recognize surrogate births and British Columbia is working on legislation which recognizes the Intended Parents as the parents of children born through surrogacy. The author is not aware of any Declarations of Parentages that have been made or completed in Newfoundland & Labrador, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
With your court order, you will now be able to get your names on the birth certificate of your child. Congratulations!
Nancy Lam is a surrogacy/IVF lawyer in Toronto, Ontario who has guided her clients through all the legal aspects of surrogacy and egg donor relationships. You can contact her at nancy@surrogacylawyer.info or visit her at www.surrogacylawyer.info.
