From Nature to Nurture; A Brief Study of Comparative Law of Filiation of Children Resulting from Reproductive Methods with the Intervention of a Third Party

Abstract

Filiation is one of the important legal issues which has gone under developments during the history of legal system. Over the modern times, along with the emergence of new methods of reproduction particularly those with the help of a third party, legal regulation of filiation of children resulting from such methods has encountered with new challenges. To whom these children are to be filiated? According to one of the traditions, the mother filiation is based on gestation and the father’s one on gamete. The question, however, is that whether these two criteria can regulate the filiation of such children in a consistent and effective manner. A study of laws and regulations of various countries gives us a negative answer. Laws that merely rely on these two criteria for the determination of filiation of those children would give rise to vagueness, undecidedness and uncertainty in this regard. Therefore, the necessity of a new criterion, i.e. that of intention, has been put forth. In this paper, we intend to study efforts made by legislators and judges of different legal systems so as to reach an effective and consistent criterion in this area.