The Court Issued a Precedent Decision Regarding the Twins Born by Two Surrogate Mothers

Interpressnews

Administrative Cases panel of Tbilisi City Court made an important decision for protecting the best interests of children. Tbilisi City Court informed “Interpressnews” about this. According to them, the birth date of the twins who were born on different days by surrogate mothers was registered on the same calendar day. 

According to the court, Tbilisi City Court upheld the claim of a plaintiff D.B against a defendant Civil Registry Service of LEPL Public Service Development Agency. 

The subject of litigation was an annulment of those administrative acts based on which the defendant was rejected to make amendments to the civil record. The plaintiff was also obliging the defendant to issue a new individual administrative act. 

“According to the statement of claim, the plaintiffs D.B and M.K decided to give birth to three infants (triplets) through the in vitro fertilization and signed an appropriate agreement with two surrogate mothers. Based on the existing medical practice, according to the procedures of medical conception and fetal development, the twins should have born on the same calendar day. However, few days earlier before the date of planned C-section, one of the surrogate mothers, who was carrying one embryo, had some health issues not related to pregnancy. As a result, one of the twins was born 10 days earlier than planned. Other two babies were born according to the medical planning 10 days later. Considering this, there was 10-day interval between the birth dates of the twins in the birth certificate issued by the Civil Registry,”- said in the court. 

According to them, plaintiffs addressed Service Development Agency of the Ministry of Justice to apply changes to the birth certificate, but they were rejected. The defendant Service Development Agency of the Ministry of Justice did not agree with the claim and stated that there were no legal grounds for applying changes to the birth certificate. 

After examining case materials, hearing explanations from the parties and legally evaluating evidence existing in the case, the court decided to uphold the claim. 

“The court relied on the Constitution of Georgia, which protects rights of mothers and children. Also they realized UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, according to which the state is obliged to protect the best interests of children, in particular to take into consideration rights and obligations of parents, guardians or other persons legally responsible for a child and take all appropriate legal and administrative measures for this purpose. The court also took into consideration a notice presented into the case by a psychologist, according to which the difference between the birth dates would be unclear for society, would raise questions, which would hinder the children’s integration into society and would have been a threat for bio-psycho-social health of the children. Accordingly, the court obliged the defendant to issue a new individual administrative act, which will make changes in the birth record of the children and the birth date of the twins will be the same calendar day,”_ said in the City Court.