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Latest Surrogacy News
Surrogate twins born in US granted
Japanese citizenship
Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Nov. 11, 2003
The Justice Ministry
decided Tuesday to grant Japanese nationality to twins that
an American woman gave birth to last year as a surrogate
mother under a contract with a Japanese couple, ministry
officials said.
Based on a California
court's decision that recognized the surrogate mother
contract between the woman and the Japanese couple, the
ministry concluded that the twins, whose father is a
Japanese national, should be granted Japanese nationality.
The ministry immediately notified the couple of its
decision.
This is the first time that
the ministry has used a U.S. court's ruling as the basis for
granting Japanese nationality to children delivered by an
American surrogate mother.
In doing so, the ministry
invoked a clause in the Code of Civil Procedure, which
stipulates that an irrevocable ruling handed down by a court
in a foreign country can be recognized as valid in Japan
unless it runs counter to public welfare.
The couple -- a 53-year-old
man and his 55-year-old wife -- asked a medical institution
to artificially fertilize an ovum donated by an American
woman of Asian descent with the man's sperm.
The fertilized ovum was
planted in the womb of another American woman, who gave
birth to the twin boys in October last year.
The couple had initially
attempted to register the twins as their children with a
local government, but were rejected.
Ministry officials said
that if the couple registers the births of the twins as the
children of the husband and the surrogate mother who
actually delivered them, they will be registered in the
man's family registry.
The twins can then be
re-registered as the couple's children if the couple applies
for "special adoption" of the twins as their children in
accordance with the Civil Code.
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