Ontario allows child to have 3 parents
Ontario allows child to have 3 parents
Wed Jan 3, 2007 3:30 PM EST
By Leah Schnurr
TORONTO (Reuters) - A five-year-old Canadian boy can have two mothers and a father, an Ontario court ruled this week in a landmark case that redefines the meaning of family and examines the rights of parents in same-sex relationships.
In a ruling released on Tuesday, the Ontario Court of Appeal said the female partner of the child's biological mother could be legally recognized as the boy's third parent.
The biological father, named on the boy's birth certificate, is a friend of both women and is taking an active role in the child's life.
"It is contrary to (the child's) best interests that he is deprived of the legal recognition of the parentage of one of his mothers," Justice Marc Rosenberg wrote in the ruling, which did not name the three parents or their child.
"Perhaps one of the greatest fears faced by lesbian mothers is the death of the birth mother... Without a declaration of parentage or some other order, the surviving partner would be unable to make decisions for their minor child."
The two women, who have been together since 1990, told the court they did not want to adopt the child because it meant the father would lose his status as a parent.
The Institute for Canadian Values, which opposes a 2005 law allowing same-sex marriage in Canada, dismissed the ruling as an act of "naked judicial activism."
"The court saw this case as an opportunity to entrench so-called alternative family structures in law without submitting the idea to the rigours of the legislative process," Executive Director Joseph Ben-Ami said in a statement.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Ontario since 2003, and across Canada since 2005.
The latest judgment overturned a 2003 ruling by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in which the judge found that he did not have jurisdiction to declare the woman a mother.
* * *
Oh Canada. *grins*
Ben-Ami kinda has a point about the court using this case to "entrench so-called alternative family structures in law without submitting the idea to the rigours of the legislative process" but, honestly, I don't care so much about that.
ummm... maybe not the best answer?
*crosses fingers*
Wed Jan 3, 2007 3:30 PM EST
By Leah Schnurr
TORONTO (Reuters) - A five-year-old Canadian boy can have two mothers and a father, an Ontario court ruled this week in a landmark case that redefines the meaning of family and examines the rights of parents in same-sex relationships.
In a ruling released on Tuesday, the Ontario Court of Appeal said the female partner of the child's biological mother could be legally recognized as the boy's third parent.
The biological father, named on the boy's birth certificate, is a friend of both women and is taking an active role in the child's life.
"It is contrary to (the child's) best interests that he is deprived of the legal recognition of the parentage of one of his mothers," Justice Marc Rosenberg wrote in the ruling, which did not name the three parents or their child.
"Perhaps one of the greatest fears faced by lesbian mothers is the death of the birth mother... Without a declaration of parentage or some other order, the surviving partner would be unable to make decisions for their minor child."
The two women, who have been together since 1990, told the court they did not want to adopt the child because it meant the father would lose his status as a parent.
The Institute for Canadian Values, which opposes a 2005 law allowing same-sex marriage in Canada, dismissed the ruling as an act of "naked judicial activism."
"The court saw this case as an opportunity to entrench so-called alternative family structures in law without submitting the idea to the rigours of the legislative process," Executive Director Joseph Ben-Ami said in a statement.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Ontario since 2003, and across Canada since 2005.
The latest judgment overturned a 2003 ruling by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in which the judge found that he did not have jurisdiction to declare the woman a mother.
* * *
Oh Canada. *grins*
Ben-Ami kinda has a point about the court using this case to "entrench so-called alternative family structures in law without submitting the idea to the rigours of the legislative process" but, honestly, I don't care so much about that.
ummm... maybe not the best answer?
*crosses fingers*