French appeal court allows adoption of assisted reproduction babies

Lesbian couples in France may now adopt babies born due to assisted reproductive technology (ART), the highest French appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

In June 343 women who had used ART abroad presented a petition calling for the scrapping of the ART ban in France to the government AFP/Dominique Paget

ART - also known as meddally assisted reproduction - is banned in France but the fact that a mother has gone abroad to use it is “not an obstacle” to the adoption of a baby here, the Cour de Cassation declared.

Some courts have ruled that such adoptions were fraudulent evasion of the but the court ruled against that argument.

Opponents of France’s gay marriage law, which was passed last year, have called a demonstration in a fortnight’s time against ART, claiming that it opens the way to surrogate parenthood, which they say would lead to the commercialisation of the birth process.

Other campaigners, including hundreds of women who admit to having gone abroad for the procedure, have called for an end to the ban on ART in France.

Socialist MPs dropped an amendment to the same-sex marriage bill that would have legalised it during last year's massive protests.

In June the European Court of Human Rights ordered France to end a ban on recognising children bortn to surrogate mothers.