Mark Simmonds (Shadow Minister, Health; Boston & Skegness, Conservative)

I have one quick question. The clause deals with civil partnerships and it mirrors clause 39, which deals with heterosexual partnerships and the use of a man’s sperm after his death. My understanding of clause 46 is that a woman who was not in a civil partnership—and might therefore not be in an intimate relationship with a women receiving treatment—who has no genetic link to the child, and who is also dead, can be named on the birth certificate as the second parent. Is the Minister comfortable with that?

Dawn Primarolo (Minister of State (Public Health), Department of Health; Bristol South, Labour)

Under the clause, through assisted conception in a United Kingdom-licensed clinic at the time when the woman was not in a marriage or a civil partnership, but her female partner had died before the embryo could be transferred to the woman, the female partner could be registered as the parent in certain circumstances: when, immediately before the female partner’s death, the agreed parenthood conditions under clause 44 were in place; when the female partner had consented in writing, and had not withdrawn that consent, to the transfer of the embryo to the woman and to herself being registered as the parent of the child born as a result; when the mother decided within the 42 days in England and Wales, and 21 days in Scotland, to register that on the birth certificate; and when no else was treated as a father or parent of the child under the provisions of the Bill, or under adoption or legitimacy law. Such circumstances reflect the position of married couples. Yes, I am satisfied that one clause mirrors the other—and no more.