Twins born to U.S. surrogate mom in legal limbo for over 1 year

The Justice Ministry has suspended its acceptance of the notification of the birth of a pair of twin baby boys for more than a year due to its failure to recognize the mother-child relationship between the Japanese woman who arranged the surrogate birth and the babies born to a U.S. surrogate mother, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Wednesday.

The twins have been left in legal limbo as a result of the ministry's legal interpretation that a mother of a child must have given birth to the child. Since the Japanese woman involved has passed the recognized age of child-bearing, she has not been accepted as the twins' mother.

While both the Justice Ministry and the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry have foreseen such a legal loophole as a problem, it is the first time an actual case has surfaced. Both ministries have discussed possible revisions to the laws concerning sterility treatment.

The 55-year-old Japanese woman and her 53-year-old husband, who live in the Kansai region, tried several fertility treatments without success before signing a contract with a California-based surrogate birth mediating firm in 2001, sources said.

The couple received eggs from an Asian-American woman. They then fertilized the eggs with the husband's sperm and implanted them in the womb of the surrogate mother--another American woman--through in vitro fertilization.

The surrogate mother gave birth to the twins in autumn last year.

Under the laws of the state of California, a couple who have organized a surrogate birth may receive a birth certificate with their names as the parents, providing a court gives a ruling in their favor.

The couple in question obtained the U.S. birth certificates and submitted them together with the babies' birth notification to a Japanese consulate in the United States.

However, the consulate suspended its acceptance of the birth notification on the ground that the woman could not have given birth to the twins as she is aged over 50.

The consulate has discussed the issue with the Justice Ministry, but still remains unable to decide whether to accept the notification.

Since the twins could not obtain Japanese nationality under the circumstances, the couple brought them to Japan and applied for foreign registration as U.S. citizens this spring.

The current Civil Code dos not anticipate issues involving sterility treatment such as surrogate birth, but the Supreme Court in 1962 handed down a ruling that recognized a parental relationship between a mother and a child in the family register based on the fact of an actual birth.

Based on the ruling, a Justice Ministry panel under its Legislative Council announced the government's position in July that under any special circumstances, a woman who gives birth should be recognized as the mother of her child.