Lesbian parents

In re G (children) (residence: same-sex partner) HL TLR 27 July

The House of Lords has overturned the decision of the Court of Appeal (25/ LL p56) in the contest between two former lesbian partners over who should be the primary carer of two girls to whom one of the partners had given birth as the result of artificial insemination. The Court of Appeal was concerned that the non-birth mother should maintain a good and close relation with the children, but the birth mother, without telling the non-birth mother, had moved with the girls from Leicester to Cornwall with a new partner. The court had no confidence that if the children remained in Cornwall the birth mother would promote their essential close relationship with her former partner. In these circumstances, the court had ordered that the children’s primary residence would be with the non-birth mother. In allowing the birth mother’s appeal, the House of Lords held that the judge and the Court of Appeal had paid insufficient attention to the important factor that the appellant was the children’s natural mother. There was no question of a parental right, but the fact that the appellant was the natural mother of the children, in every sense of that term, while raising no presumption in her favour was an important and significant factor in determining what would be best for them now and in the future. Yet that factor was not explored in the judgment below. While it might well be in the best interests of children to change their living arrangements if one parent was frustrating their relationship with the other parent who was able to offer them a good and loving home, that was unlikely to be so while that relationship was in fact being maintained in accordance with the court’s order.