Courts in Western nations are making it possible to grow up with three legal parents …
This spring, the Pennsylvania Superior Court in the US ruled that a child can have three legal parents. The case involved a lesbian couple and a friend who had donated sperm. All three adults are now liable for child support. A Canadian court decision made in January in Ontario had been the first in any Western nation to make this kind of ruling. Following similar logic, a boy’s biological mother and father, as well as the mother’s lesbian partner, have all been granted parenting rights.
In 2005, a commission in Australia and New Zealand made a proposal that egg and sperm donors should be allowed to “opt in” as a child’s third parent. Meanwhile, in Britain, scientists were granted permission by the state to create an embryo out of the DNA of three adults. This scenario creates the possibility of three people having equal legal claim to a child, were the embryo brought to term.
We’re all familiar with the saying “it takes a village to raise a child.” Surely, the more parents participating actively in a child’s upbringing, the better, no? Maybe. A few generations back, children often had a mother, a father, a grandmother and maybe an aunt or two looking out for them. Isn’t this contemporary scenario simply a new version of the extended family? Maybe. Provided the parents in question are able to leave interpersonal conflicts out of the picture, when deciding on the best interests of the kid in question. Ah, there lies the crux of the situation. No one ever said the people living in the village are always at their best.
This article was published Saturday, July 21, 2007.
