Surrogate twins’ fate to be decided by French court

The fate of a French homosexual’s twins, born to a surrogate mother in Mumbai, rests with the judiciary in France. The French researcher has been stranded in Mumbai with his twins as he is facing difficulty in getting permission to take them home.

The fate of a French homosexual’s twins, born to a surrogate mother in Mumbai, rests with the judiciary in France. The French researcher has been stranded in Mumbai with his twins as he is facing difficulty in getting permission to take them home.

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Since surrogacy is not legal in France, the 40-year-old French researcher may lose his twin sons who were born to a surrogate from Mumbai at Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital, Powai, in the last week of April.

An official from the French Consulate in Mumbai said French law “strictly prohibits the recourse to surrogate mothers and makes it mandatory to obtain the permission of the judiciary prior to registering children in the national Register of Births”.

So, the consulate will be able to give the twins passports only after the concerned court in France grants permission for the same. The researcher had submitted the birth certificates of the twins to the French Consulate in Mumbai so they could be transferred to the birth registry in France. But that has not happened yet. The researcher had come to Mumbai in February with his partner of 14 years to fulfill his desire for a child. He has spent more than Rs 11 lakh for the surrogacy procedure.

This case comes barely a month after an Israeli homosexual was denied permission to take his surrogate twins home. The Israeli father, Dan Goldberg, was stuck in Mumbai for three months before his twins Itai and Liron got passports.