sundered hearts

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Sep 06, 2005

Who gets three-year-old Nigel, his biological or his psychological mum? They've grown apart. Australian courts are determining which end of the turkey baster constitutes chief-caregiverhood, while the child in question, presumably, is committing Andrew Sullivan's Virtually Normal to memory.

Two Sydney women who had a long-term relationship have started a custody battle for a three-year-old boy conceived through donor insemination.

The non-biological mother claims she has been the psychological and emotional parent since the boy was born, and that he has spent more time with her in the years since the couple separated. The looming Family Court battle highlights a dilemma in lesbian relationships where both women may agree to have a child, and raise it together, but only one can give birth. Under NSW law the partner who does not bear the child has no legal rights as a parent.

Nici Clayhills, solicitor for the non-biological mother, said homosexuals had progressed since the 1970s from fighting for rights to recognise difference, to fighting to be accepted as normal. "That involves wanting the mortgage, the dog, the child and the marriage," she said. "And it's extending to disputes in the Family Court."

Saith King Solomon: "Cut the parents in half."