{"id":261277,"date":"2026-01-01T07:38:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T07:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/261277\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T07:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T07:38:17","slug":"irelands-donor-conception-laws-leave-families-in-legal-limbo-campaigner-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/261277\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s donor conception laws leave families in legal limbo, campaigner says"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman\u2019s one-year-old son is among \u201cthousands\u201d stuck in a legal limbo<\/strong> because of Ireland\u2019s laws around donor conception<\/strong>, the campaigner says.<\/p>\n

Baby Ali<\/strong> was born through a process known as reciprocal IVF<\/strong>, during which Ranae Von Meding<\/strong>, 38, became pregnant with an embryo created using an egg from her wife Audrey and donor sperm.<\/p>\n

But, because this process was done abroad, only Ms Von Meding can be registered on his birth certificate.<\/p>\n

She says it has led to a bizarre situation where she says: \u201cIf I walked out there today and got hit by a car, he would be orphaned,\u201d despite his biological mother, who has raised him, still being alive.<\/p>\n

\"One-year-oldOne-year-old Ali. Photo: Family handout\/PA.<\/p>\n

On a day-to-day level, it also means her wife cannot undertake some of the practical tasks of parenting, such as making medical decisions or enrolling her child in school.<\/p>\n

The couple have been campaigning for better protection for their children for almost a decade.<\/p>\n

It led to Ms Von Meding co-founding advocacy group Equality for Children, and she was named LGBTQ+ Person of the Year at the 2024 GALAS awards for her work.<\/p>\n

Together for 17 years, the couple were married and had their first child, Eva, in 2016, months after the landmark referendum legalising same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n

They assumed their marriage would afford them the same parental rights as a married heterosexual couple, but discovered only a mother and father could be recognised as the legal parents of a child through birth.<\/p>\n

She said the experience of trying to register Eva\u2019s birth was \u201cdevastating and soul-crushing\u201d, describing it as \u201cone of the worst days of our lives\u201d.<\/p>\n

Legislation was commenced in 2020, which meant some same-sex couples could be registered as parents through birth, but Ms Von Meding says it \u201cfell short of what our community needed, in that it would only cover a small percentage of queer families\u201d.<\/p>\n

An \u201camnesty\u201d in the legislation meant she and her wife could finally both be registered as legal parents of their first two children Eva, nine, and Arya, seven.<\/p>\n

\"Ali,Baby Ali and his sister Arya. Photo: Family handout\/PA.<\/p>\n

But despite this legislation retrospectively covering the two girls, it did not allow for children who were later born through donor conception abroad to be registered as their own.<\/p>\n

She says her son is \u201cgenetically identical to his siblings and born into the same happily married family unit\u201d but \u201cbecause of a technicality\u201d is \u201ctreated differently from his older sisters\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now they are waiting for The Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Act 2024, which was signed into law in July 2024, to come into force.<\/p>\n

She says families are \u201cagain\u201d in a situation where legislation exists, but it has yet to come into force so no one can benefit from its provisions.<\/p>\n

However, as it stands, she says that legislation also \u201cleaves a lot of people out\u201d, including her family, as \u201cit doesn\u2019t include same-sex female couples who use international clinics or who have their children abroad\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Department of Health said while the Bill was progressing through the Oireachtas, \u201cissues were identified\u201d.<\/p>\n

In October 2024, the Government approved drafting of an amending Bill to address these issues and they say that is at an \u201cadvanced stage\u201d.<\/p>\n

They say the Bill\u2019s provisions will \u201capply equally\u201d irrespective of whether the parents are a same-sex couple or an opposite-sex couple, or a single parent.<\/p>\n

In October, a report by the Joint Committee on Health found \u201cthe journey towards robust legislation\u201d in this area has been \u201ca long and winding one spanning over a quarter of a century\u201d.<\/p>\n

It recommends \u201cin cases of international donor-assisted human reproduction, the Bill must provide a mechanism for second parents to have their parentage recognised\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a debate on the matter on December 18th, TDs expressed their frustration with delays, with the committee chairman criticising the a lack of a \u201cclear timeline from the minister of state\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"PadraigChairman of the Oireachtas Health Committee Padraig Rice. Photo: Niall Carson\/PA.<\/p>\n

Until the legislation is published families such as Ms Von Mending\u2019s, who have accessed fertility treatment abroad will not know if it will resolve their situation.<\/p>\n

She says many people use clinics abroad for \u201cmyriad reasons\u201d \u2013 when she and her wife wanted to start their family in Ireland reciprocal IVF was not available in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Now that it is, she says many continue to choose fertility treatment abroad because of cost, as same-sex couples are still excluded from the HSE\u2019s free Assisted Human Reproduction service.<\/p>\n

Others have started undergoing fertility treatment when living abroad, and later returned to Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman\u2019s one-year-old son is among \u201cthousands\u201d stuck in a legal limbo because of Ireland\u2019s laws around donor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-261277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115818706009190006","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}