Britain’s most senior woman judge has called for same-sex couples who have children by artificial insemination to be legally recognised as the parents.

Baroness Hale of Richmond suggested that the present law was discriminatory and in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

At present, lesbian couples can register their relationships under the Civil Partnership Act 2004. But if one of them gave birth after artificial insemination, the other would be treated as the stepparent, not the parent, she said.

When a heterosexual couple used insemination, she added, the mother’s husband or partner automatically became the legal father of the child, even if his sperm was not used. This was because the Civil Partnership Act 2004 did not amend section 28 of the Human and Embryology Act 1990, she said at the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting annual lecture last night.

“It would be difficult to argue that this matter did not fall within the ambit of the convention’s right to respect for family life,” she said.

The Government had now proposed applying section 28 to same-sex couples in a White Paper, she added.

“Only when people can be open about themselves and their relationships without fear or shame will true equality have arrived.”

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