Hong Kong court backs lesbian couple on registering as parents of son together
Court of First Instance sides with married couple seeking legal recognition of their parental status
A Hong Kong court has ruled it unlawful for authorities to bar a lesbian couple from registering together as parents of their son conceived through fertility treatment, saying it violates the boy’s privacy and family rights.
The pair, a Chinese woman, “R”, and a South African, “B”, married abroad in 2019 and underwent reciprocal in vitro fertilisation (RIVF). The medical procedure allowed R to provide an egg while B, a Hong Kong permanent resident, carried the child, “K”.
But it was only after the boy’s birth in 2021 that the couple found out the birth registry would only recognise B, the woman delivering the baby, as the mother.
R has no legal status at all, despite being the only family member of K with whom he has a genetic connection.
The couple first lodged a legal bid in 2022 asking for a renewed interpretation of the Parent and Child Ordinance that would recognise R as the boy’s parent.