Puerto Rico proposes quickie unilateral divorce, other reforms.

This Stephen Baskerville Interview in El Visitante Newspaper in Puerto Rico is mostly about joint custody, but it appears to say, by the way, that the legislature there is introducing quickie unilateral divorce. According to the charts in the ABA's Family Law Quarterly, Puerto Rico currently has a 2-year waiting period for unilateral no-fault divorce, like Pa., Md. & Ill. The article talks about existing "mutual agreement divorce" which is probably quicker. But it also says that as part of a comprehensive family law reform, "the Civil Code has been revised. The draft proposed for public discussion:

 

--Reorganizes the divorce causes, so all divorce process will be a "no-blame divorce".

[If anyone has any more information about this, please post a comment or e-mail me.  From the other proposals listed, it sounds like it may be based on the aptly-named American Law Institute Principles of Family Dissolution.]

 

--Gives equal marriage rights to same-sex civil unions and regular civil unions.

--Recognizing as part of woman's right over her body the artificial insemination of single woman, using anonymous genetic material, for having a baby who will not have a father.

--Provides for creating a Posthumous procreation will, for establishing that the child will be conceived after father's or mother's death.

--Gives the custody only to the woman, rather than joint custody, when both parents are equally able to raise the child.

-- Provides the option for living in separate houses when the couple get married. If the spouses cannot decide in which house the children will live, the court will decide. (It is important to know that traveling distances to workplaces in Puerto Rico are usually short, for this reason it is not common that a happy marriage couple decide to live in separate houses).

--Eliminates the need of marriage for adopting a child.

--Prohibits the use of sexual orientation as a criteria for limiting the custody of children.

--Recognizes the surrogate motherhood agreements. Also, declares the baby born as a result of assisted procreation, "consanguineous son" (instead of adopted) of the people who pay for the procedure, even if their genetic material was not used and they are not the true biological parents.

--Permits sex changes in birth certificates."

Article originally titled Denuncia "guerra" contra la paternidad y la familia
Vivian Maldonado Miranda
entrevistas@elvisitante.biz