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21 Med. L. Int'l 3 (2021)

handle is hein.journals/medclint21 and id is 1 raw text is: MEDICAL LAW
Article                               INTERNATIONAL

The ECtHR's first advisory
opinion: Implications for
cross-border surrogacy involving
male intended parents

Medical Law International
2021, Vol. 21(1) 3-18
©The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/09685332211002592
journals.sagepub.com/home/mli
OSAGE

Lydia Bracken
University of Limerick, Ireland
Abstract
This article examines the content and scope of the European Court of Human Rights's
first advisory opinion as regards the practice of cross-border surrogacy in Europe.
While the advisory opinion concerns the recognition of the legal parentage of an
intended mother, this article considers whether the reasoning could be applied to male
couples who avail of surrogacy. It is argued that the non-genetically related intended
father in the male couple is in a directly comparable position to the non-genetically
related intended mother in the opposite-sex couple for the purpose of legal parentage
following surrogacy.
Keywords
Advisory opinion, ECtHR, male couple, cross-border surrogacy
Received 2 December 2020; Revised 2 December 2020; Accepted 23 February 2021
Introduction
In its first-ever advisory opinion issued under Article 1 of Protocol No. 16 to the
European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the European Court of Human Rights
(ECtHR) found that the right to respect for private life of a child born abroad through
gestational surrogacy demanded that a mechanism should exist to allow the child's
relationship with their intended mother to be recognised under domestic law where

Corresponding author:
Lydia Bracken, School of Law, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
Email: lydia.bracken@ul.ie

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