Requiring Father’s Name On Birth Certificate Of Kids Born Of IVF To Single Women Affects Their Dignity, Says Kerala HC
We’ve watched Modern Love and we’ve binged Modern Family, but pray tell, when is it going to be time to accept these modern relationships into our Indian society IRL? The traditional family structures no longer hold now that we haven’t just moved from joint to nuclear families but from two-parent to single parent families. With the option of in vitro fertilisation or IVF available to single women, it has become easier for those considering the option to have children without a spouse. However, we have this particularly frustrating thing called legal or bureaucratic paperwork in our country, which has been taking its own sweet time to catch up with these modern notions of family, single parenthood and more. Luckily, judgements like this one given by the Kerala High Court, are working towards improving on that situation. Recently, the Kerala HC made an important ruling about requiring father’s name on the birth and death registrations and certificates of children born through Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) such as IVF to single mothers.
The Kerala High Court ruling came in response to a petition filed by a divorced woman who used the IVF procedure to get pregnant. In her petition, the woman, who is eight months pregnant, stated how she couldn’t exactly put down a name in the birth certificate for a ‘father’ for her child since the identity of her sperm donor is anonymous and not even revealed to her. Furthermore, she said that even if she were to leave the space where the father’s name is to appear, blank, it would hurt her dignity and the need to have a name there encroaches on her and the donor’s right to privacy, which is a right protected by the anonymity of sperm donors in such ART procedures as well.
In response, the Kerala HC acknowledged her petition and remarked that since the right of single mothers to conceive via ART procedures has been recognised, requiring them to furnish the father’s name in birth and death registrations of a child thus conceived would go against that very right.
“The right of a single parent/ unwed mother to conceive by ART having been recognised, prescriptions of forms requiring mentioning of name of father, the details of which is to be kept anonymous, is violative of their fundamental rights of privacy, liberty and dignity. Requiring the petitioner to leave the column regarding the details of father as blank, the issuance of a certificate of birth or certificate of death leaving the space provided therein regarding the details of the father as blank, necessarily affects the right of dignity of the mother as well as the child,” the high court said.
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The court further decreed that it is now the duty of the Kerala state government, having recognised this right of single women to have children via ART, to provide separate appropriate forms for registration of births and deaths for children born through such procedures and for the certificates pertaining to the same, thereby keeping up with the changing times.
“By the passage of time, evolution of techniques, change in lifestyle and personal choices recognized by the Rule of Law, appropriate modifications/ changes/ additions/alterations need to be made in statutes, rules and the forms prescribed thereunder,” the court said.
Since the petitioner would be delivering her child soon, the court directed the Kerala government to take the necessary steps to prescribe the separate appropriate forms “immediately”.
“To such applicants, a separate form, which does not contain the field regarding the name and other details of the father, shall be prescribed. In so far as certificate of death is concerned, it would suffice if in the column where the name of the father or husband is sought for, another entry could be made as that of the mother (like Father / Husband / Mother).”
Lastly, to avoid any possible misuse of such forms to “settle scores in family feuds”, the Kerala High Court has directed that applicants who want to avail these forms will have to furnish an affidavit stating that they are a single parent/unwed mother who is conceiving through ART procedure. This affidavit would have to be produced along with a copy of any medical records that attest to the same.
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