The Birth Registration Reform Group was formed to seek changes in the way births are registered in the UK. We include donor-conceived people, academics, social work professionals and lawyers.
We believe that:
Donor-conceived people and those born following surrogacy should have access to complete and accurate information about their genetic and biological origins.
Birth registration should respect the identity of trans parents
The system of birth certification should be simplified and clarified
Before 1990, donor conception in the UK was unregulated. Following the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, licensing was introduced for fertility clinics and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority was created to regulate the industry. The 1990 Act made it illegal for anyone involved in fertility treatment to disclose the identity of a donor: donors were anonymous by law.
After years of lobbying and campaigning by donor-conceived people and their allies, Parliament changed the rules by introducing the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (Disclosure of Donor Information) Regulations 2004. The 2004 Regulations provided that in future a person aged 18 or over could ask the HFEA if they were donor-conceived and, if they were, they could also find out the name of their donor, so long as the donor had provided the information after 1 April 2004.
The 2004 Regulations were meant to abolish donor anonymity and ensure that donor-conceived people could find out the identity of their genetic parents.
But there was a flaw in the Regulations. A person would only contact the HFEA if they knew they were donor-conceived, and they would only know that if someone told them: their parents or someone else who knew. And most parents don’t. So many people never know, and many more find out either in a moment of family crisis, or when they use direct-to-consumer DNA services like Ancestry, 23andMe or My Heritage.
We believe that people should be able to find out about their personal history without relying on anyone else.
That’s not the only problem with the existing system.
Trans parents: The effect of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 is that a trans parent may have to be registered, not in their legally-recognised gender, but in the gender assigned to them at birth. Not only is that hurtful to the parent (the Court of Appeal in a recent case said that it represents a significant interference with their sense of identity, which is an integral aspect of their right to respect for private life), but it is, at best, confusing for the child. We propose that birth records should use gender-neutral language.
Surrogacy: At present, people born following surrogacy can see from their official documentation that they were carried by a surrogate: instead of a long-form birth certificate they are issued with a copy of an entry in the Parental Orders Register, and when they reach the age of 18 they can see their original birth certificate, naming the surrogate as “mother”. The Law Commissions of England and Wales and of Scotland have proposed a change so that, in most cases, the birth certificate of a surrogate-born person would name only their “intended” or commissioning parents: no mention of the surrogate. We believe that the identity of everyone directly involved in the conception, gestation and birth of a child should be recorded and accessible.
We propose that:
Each person’s birth should be recorded in a single, digital, Record of Personal Origin. In the case of those conceived by means of assisted reproduction in a UK licensed fertility facility the RPO would include the identities of all concerned: the legal parents, any donor and any surrogate. A person would be able to access their RPO at the age of 16.
The existing long-form and short-form birth certificates should be replaced by a single Certificate of Legal Parentage, derived from the RPO and statutorily mandated as acceptable for all purposes for which a birth certificate may be required, subject to any specified exceptions for which more details might be required (for example, for a first passport application).
The RPO should use gender-neutral language .
We do not seek to disturb the law which confers the status of legal parenthood on those who make use of assisted reproduction. Nor is it proposed that anyone who does not make use of a fertility clinic should have to declare or prove their children’s genetic parentage.
Read the full text of our submission to the Law Commission here.
Birth Registration Reform Group UK 