Irrebutable Presumptions and Fair Procedures

In Ireland last week, the High Court rendered a landmark judgment on surrogacy: M.R. v. An t-Ard Cláraitheoir, [2013] IEHC 91.

Here, the registrar of births had refused to register a biological (or genetic) parent as the mother of her twins. Instead, the state agency insisted that the surrogate (or gestational) mother should be registered. This even though the surrogate mother did not oppose the application by the biological mother.