International Family Law News & Analysis

Norway's crown princess poses as nanny in India, helps gay friend with international surrogacy baby

Norway princess in secret India trip to play nanny - Reuters

Reuters writes:

 Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit secretly traveled to India in order to care for infant twins born to the surrogate mother of a gay palace employee unable to get a travel visa, the palace said ... Armed with a diplomatic passport that granted her immediate access, the future queen jumped on a plane in late October when the employee, who is also a friend, and his husband were unable to travel to care for their newborns.

"For me, this is about two babies lying alone in a New Delhi hospital," Mette-Marit said in a statement. "I was able to travel and wanted to do what I could."

She did not alert Indian authorities and spent several days with the babies at the Manav Medicare Centre, where staff assumed the wife of Norway's Crown Prince Haakon was a nanny. ...

Surrogacy is a hotly debated issue in Norway and the government discourages Norwegians from paying surrogate parents for children. ... The Crown Princess acknowledged the debate and insisted she is not taking a side and only did what a friend had to do. "Sometimes life presents you with situations with few good solutions. This was one of those," she said. 

 

Secret international sperm donor/Alabama politician wants to "be around for these children" in New Zealand

As my old friend Franklin Harris said, "Republicans just can't have normal scandals. Everything's got to be like a screwball comedy plot." I'm not sure if this is a real scandal since he's never been an or elected official, just a former candidate, staffer and appointee, but other than that, it's a good one. The guy's been moonlighting as a freelance sperm donor in New Zealand.

... he had just finished dining with one of the women he impregnated. He said he was unable to have children with his wife ... and that the urge to become a biological father was “a need that I have.”

... "I've been trying to get my wife over here, my family over here ... so I can be around for these children," ... .

Full story on Yahoo! News and a less full version but with more vocabulary learning opportunities titled "Alabama Rethuglican gets NZ lezzies preggers"

Japanese panel recommends outlawing surrogate birth as international surrogacy case's difficulties make news

No entry for surrogate baby / Divorce of Japanese couple leaves girl
stranded in India

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A baby girl born to an Indian surrogate mother, who made a surrogacy
agreement with a Japanese couple, cannot gain entry to Japan because the
baby has not been given any nationality since the couple divorced after the
agreement was made and only the father has claimed custody of the baby, it
has been learned.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry has told the father that, in accordance with
the Japanese Civil Code, the government cannot accept the registration of
the birth of the baby as a Japanese. The code grants status of being the
legally acknowledged mother to the woman who has actually given birth to the
baby.

To make it possible for the father to take custody of the baby, he needs to
go through the necessary legal procedures in Japan and India to adopt the
child, the ministry said. The baby will not be allowed into Japan in the
meantime, it said.

Regarding the pros and cons of surrogate births, the Science Council of
Japan--which regards so-called surrogate birth tours to developing countries
as questionable--compiled a report in April. The report said a new law
should be introduced to prohibit the practice of surrogate births.