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Saturday 20th January 2024 – Anonymous 2 Dear Scrutiny panel
I am the mother of a baby girl. When my wife and I decided to have children I did want my own biological child. Due to several factors which were medical and financially advised by the doctors we went down the IVF route. Regardless of whether it was my egg or my wife's, financially the only option was for my wife to carry to the child. We went into this hand in hand knowing the child would be ours. The paperwork we had to sign was very extensive as the procedure was carried out in London and therefore subject to UK law. These are the very laws you are currently discussing. If we had our child in the U.K. I would be a parent however because the law has not been looked at here despite our marriage and a potential biological link to our child as it could have been my egg, I am considered unrelated and have no rights at all to my child. If I was a husband using a sperm donor I understand that I would be automatically entitled to be the parent. Fair? I think not.
Going through this procedure was expensive as Jersey does not in real terms help with this cost despite stating it would like to increase its birth rate, complicated by undergoing the treatment in Covid and being reassured during the whole process the law was to be debated as the drafting had started a few years before (we started this in 2019), in 2023 we welcomed our daughter into the world with only one name on the birth certificate and a surname that was not what we wanted it to be as the law updating process had still not been completed/prioritised.
I welcome you expediting any discussion you need to have to at least bring parity to the law for married parents to have children and be recognised on their birth certificate as such. We should be inclusive and not an outlier in the western world. To the minority that it affects it really matters, to the majority it flys under the radar as it doesn't affect them. As it currently affects me I talk to my relatives and acquaintances about it. Firstly they are shocked as they assume that it would have been sorted with the marriage law and then they are appalled. It is with great sadness that as a Jersey person by birth and lineage that I have to write this in 2024 and that I have a fear that this will be delayed, dragged out and put back as not a priority due to Jersey politics and lack of decision making and progressive thinking. Please restore my faith with a quick debate and recommendation to proceed with the law change.
Yours faithfully [redacted]