The committee considered whether an agreement should be a required part of the legislation, noting that Ontario and Saskatchewan have existing legislation that calls for a preconception written agreement in these circumstances. Preconception agreements are also a requirement of BC’s Family Law Act, which in section 30 contains enabling legislation for multiple parents of children conceived by assisted reproduction.

The committee began its consideration of this issue by discussing whether the circumstances of conception by sexual intercourse differ from conception by assisted reproduction in any ways that would call for a different approach to legislation. In particular, the committee’s attention focused on the timing of the agreement. Should a parentage agreement providing for more than two parents for a child conceived by sexual intercourse be required pre-birth—as opposed to preconception? Would this timing provide some flexibility that would better address the realities of forming a multiple-parent family when a child is conceived by sexual intercourse? Or does providing for a different timing rule than the one used in section 30 for children conceived by assisted reproduction create the prospect of problems in practice?

The goal of these discussions is to develop tentative recommendations to reform part 3 for a public consultation to be held later in the life of the project.

The post Parentage agreements the focus of April 2022 parentage committee meeting first appeared on British Columbia Law Institute.

The committee completed its examination of a provision in the American Uniform Parentage Act 2017 (PDF) that sets out a court-based process to deny parentage to the perpetrator of a sexual assault that results in the birth of a child.

The committee also began its consideration of the issue of whether a child conceived by sexual intercourse may have more than two legal parents. Currently, part 3 of the Family Law Act doesn’t allow this. This rule for children conceived by sexual intercourse stands in contrast to part 3’s rule for children conceived by assisted reproduction, which doesn’t limit a child to two legal parents. In addition, BC’s supreme court has ruled in a recent case that its parens patriae jurisdiction permits it to declare that a child conceived by sexual intercourse may have more than two parents. Finally, it also differs from legislation in Ontario and Saskatchewan, both of which permit multiple parents regardless of the method of the child’s conception. The committee considered whether part 3 should be amended and, if it should be, what features that amendment should contain.

The goal of these discussions is to develop tentative recommendations to reform part 3 for a public consultation to be held later in the life of the project.

The post Parentage committee considers legislation allowing multiple parents for children conceived by sexual intercourse first appeared on British Columbia Law Institute.