Single women conceiving with known donors or co-parents

If you are conceiving with a known donor or co-parent, it is important to know where you stand, as the law can be complicated.

newborn sleeping If you conceive with a known sperm donor or co-parent at home (and not through a UK licensed clinic), your sperm donor is your child's legal father.

If you conceive with a known donor or co-parent at a licensed fertility clinic, your donor's fatherhood might be excluded by the laws that govern licensed sperm donation. However, the law is complex, and a known donor or co-parent who donates to a single woman through a clinic might be regarded as the legal father, even if he has signed donor consent forms.

Who goes on the birth certificate?

Under the current law, it is up to you whether you name your known donor on the birth certificate (although he needs to attend the birth registration with you if you want to name him). The decision is legally significant; if your donor is named on your child's birth certificate it gives him parental responsibility for your child, as well as acknowledging that he should not be treated as a licensed sperm donor. Parental responsibility gives your donor the right to involvement in both day-to-day and key decision making about your child's upbringing.

If you do not name the donor on the birth certificate, he does not automatically have parental responsibility. However, assuming that he is the legal father of your child, he retains certain rights to apply for parental responsibility or for other court orders, and remains financially responsible.

Known donor disputes: what if we fall out?

Known donation disputes, sadly, happen from time to time. Typically problems arise because the father (or fathers) want a more significant role in the child's life than the mother feels happy with. This might be to do with the level and regularity of contact, or how everyone sees their respective roles (or a combination of both). Questions of child maintenance may also arise. Find out more about known donor disputes.

Do we need a preconception agreement?

If you are planning a known donation or co-parenting arrangement, putting in place a written agreement is a good idea. There are broadly two types of preconception agreements:

Donor agreements, which are designed to minimise the donor's legal rights and status
Co-parenting agreements, which envisage shared parenting and seek too clarify how the arrangement will work in practice.

Which is most appropriate for you depends on your situation.

Written agreements are not binding on the family court (the child's welfare is always the paramount consideration), and the courts have given different levels of weight to what was agreed at the outset in different cases. Find out more about recent cases on donor disputes.

Preconception agreements also have real value in facilitating discussions and helping everyone to enter into an arrangement with clarity and consensus. In practice, this is enormously powerful as a means of avoiding later disputes.