AUSTRALIA – Sperm donor loses birth certificate fight

A Sydney man says he is devastated that his name has been taken off a 10-year-old girl’s birth certificate, after a legal challenge by the mother’s former lesbian partner.

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The girl was born in 2001 after the man, who for legal reasons can only be known as BB, answered an advertisement to provide sperm to a lesbian couple.

The birth mother’s name was put on the birth certificate, along with BB’s.

A law change in 2008 allowed lesbian couples to be listed on birth certificates, but still limited the document to two parents.

The mother’s former partner, known only as AA, took the New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages to court seeking to have her name on the document in place of BB’s.

In ordering the removal of the father’s name, the judge said he had considerable sympathy for BB but he did not have a contractual right to remain on the certificate.

Speaking outside the court, BB made clear he still wants a relationship with his daughter.

“Fathers have been thrown in the trash can. I’m absolutely outraged,” the 58-year-old said.

“I don’t even know if I can call her my daugher, like father’s day is in two weeks time. Am I now her father? What am I?

“As far as I can see I’m nothing. I’m just a donor who donated sperm to make a child, not even my daughter. I can’t even call her my daughter now. She’s not my daughter as far as the law’s concerned.

“I have no legal rights whatsoever. The judge has totally ignored the rights of the child. The child does have a right to know their identity. The judge totally ignored that, so it’s just a very bad day for fathers.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-17/father-loses-birth-certificate-fight/2843288

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