Single women conceiving with known donors or co-parents
If you conceive with a known sperm donor or co-parent at home (and not through a UK licensed clinic), your sperm donor will be your child's legal father.
If you conceive with a known donor or co-parent at a licensed fertility clinic, your donor's fatherhood may 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 may 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 will need 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 will give 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 will not automatically have parental responsibility. However, assuming that he is the legal father of your child, he will retain certain rights to apply for parental responsibility or for other court orders, and will remain financially responsible.
Single women: do I need a donor or co-parenting agreement?
A written agreement concerning parenting will not normally bind the court, but it may be taken into account if a dispute arises. The weight an agreement is given - and its legal effect - will depend on the underlying law, your particular circumstances and the content of the agreement. To be of value, a donor or co-parenting agreement should be drafted according to your particular circumstances and with expert legal help, whether your goal is to exclude your donor's responsibilities or to set out how you envisage your co-parenting relationship working.
When we help you to prepare a written agreement, our goal is always not just to draft a document for you, but to help you to use your agreement as a means of understanding and managing the law. Drafting the agreement goes hand in hand with discussing with you how the underlying law applies, with a view to helping you to avoid pitfalls and manage your relationship successfully to avoid disputes arising. The process of putting together a written agreement can also be useful in helping to flush out any mismatched expectations between you (which are often the cause of later disputes).
Please contact us for advice on your particular situation.
