No Sexual Component Necessary for a Valid Marriage – High Court Ruling

23/03/2018


Every marriage is different and it is no business of the law to delve into the nature of deeply personal relationships. The High Court powerfully made that point in a foreign surrogacy case involving a married couple whose relationship included no sexual component and was entirely platonic.

After their much-loved child was born, following an overseas surrogacy arrangement, the couple applied to the Court under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 to be recognised as the child’s legal parents. The Act requires that, in such cases, applicants must be husband and wife and that the child’s home must be with them.

In ruling on the case, the Court noted that the absence of a sexual element in the couple’s relationship did not in any way affect the validity of their marriage. Their relationship was deep and long-standing and the fact that one of them, as the other had always known, was gay, was neither here nor there. In the words of Queen Elizabeth I, it was no part of the state’s role to make windows into people’s souls and the nature of the couple’s relationship was none of the Court’s business.

Although the couple lived separately, care of the child was divided equally between them and the child was very familiar with each of their homes. The criteria laid down by the Act had thus been met and the Court had great pleasure, and not the slightest hesitation, in granting the parental order sought.

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