JERSEY Law and Practice Contributed by: Lauren Glynn, Victoria Cure and Tara Lee, Carey Olsen
and the order should usually be granted unless clearly contrary to the child’s welfare. 1.4 Requirements for Non-Genetic Parents A non-genetic parent can obtain parental responsibil - ity in the following ways. • Adoption – pursuant to the Adoption (Jersey) Law 1961, an adoptive parent automatically acquires parental responsibility by the making of an adop - tion order. • Step-parents – currently, a step-parent can only acquire parental responsibility if a residence order is made in their favour or if they adopt their step- child(ren). Draft legislation, the Children and Civil Status (Amendments) (Jersey) Law 2024, which is due to come into force in the latter part of 2025, will allow a step-parent who is married to, or in a civil partnership with, the child’s parent, to acquire parental responsibility for their step-child(ren) by entering into a parental responsibility agreement, providing each parent with parental responsibility is in agreement. • Same-sex female parents – see 1.6 Same-Sex Relationships . • Surrogacy – in Jersey, surrogacy is not currently governed by any legislation. The surrogate birth mother will be registered as the child’s mother in the register of births and named on the child’s birth certificate. The biological father (if there is one) can be registered as the father in the register of births and their name will appear on the child’s birth certificate. (a) If the surrogate mother is married, the husband of the surrogate mother will be treated as the father of the child unless it is shown that he did not consent to the arrangement. Those named in the register of births will acquire legal par - ent status for the child. Following a six-week period, the surrogate mother can provide her agreement for the child to be freed for adoption or for a parental order to be made by the Court in England and Wales. (b) The intended parents can either (i) adopt the child in Jersey, which extinguishes the legal parent status and parental responsibility of the birth mother and the child’s father (if named in the register of births) and will provide the
intended parents with legal parent status and parental responsibility or (ii) apply for a parental order from a court in England and Wales if they satisfy the criteria in Section 54 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008. There is some debate in Jersey as to the enforceability of a parental order obtained in England and Wales. (c) The draft Children and Civil Status (Amend - ments) (Jersey) Law 2024, once enacted, will allow the intended parents of a child born by a surrogate mother to apply to the court in Jer - sey for a parental order, which will, if granted, provide them with legal parent status and pa - rental responsibility for the child and extinguish the existing legal parent status and parental responsibility for the child. Certain criteria, which will be set out in the new law, will need to be satisfied in order for a parental order to be granted. • Guardian – pursuant to Article 7 of the CJL 2002, a person appointed as a child’s guardian shall have parental responsibility for the child concerned. • Public law proceedings – where a care order is in force with respect to a child, the Minister shall have parental responsibility for the child. If an emer - gency protection order is in force with respect to a child, the applicant shall have parental respon - sibility for the child but shall only take such action in meeting such responsibility as is reasonably required to safeguard or promote the child’s wel - fare having regard to the duration of the order. • Residence order – where the court makes a resi - dence order in favour of any person who is not the parent or guardian of the child, that person shall have parental responsibility for the child while the residence order remains in force. It is important to note that where a person has parental responsibili - ty for a child as a result of this, the person shall not have the right to consent, or refuse to consent, to the making of an application with respect to freeing a child for adoption or the making of an adoption order. 1.5 Relevance of Marriage at Point of Conception or Birth As set out in 1.3 Requirements for Fathers , a father will automatically acquire parental responsibility if they
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