INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
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A 46-year-old man has won a landmark case in Singapore
A gay
Singaporean man has won a landmark court case which will allow him to adopt a child he fathered through a surrogate.The man, 46, and his
legally adopt the child but the bid was rejected last year, leaving him with no legal parental rights
Same-sex marriages are not recognised in Singapore and gay sex is illegal.The four-year-old child is considered illegitimate in the eyes of
the law as the surrogate mother and biological father are not married
The mother - who waived all her rights under the surrogacy deal - is also foreign, making the child ineligible to automatically qualify for
The egg donor has never been identified
The father was left with no legal rights parental, though was allowed to make decisions on the child's behalf.The man's initial bid to
adopt his child was rejected last December, though the judge at the time said the decision was not a judgement on what "a family unit ought
to be".Instead, Judge Shobha Nair said it was about the ethics of commercial surrogacy.On Monday, Singapore's High Court ruled that the
man - who cannot be identified - would be able to adopt his child."Our decision should not be taken as an endorsement of what the appellant
and his partner set out to do," said Chief Justice Sunderesh Menon in his judgement
He said that there was "significant weight" put towards the concern that the ruling would "not violate the public policy against the
formation of same-sex family units"
However, he added that in this case, there was a "statutory imperative to promote the welfare of the child to regard his welfare as first
and paramount".Speaking to the TheIndianSubcontinent, lawyer Ivan Cheong said his client was "overjoyed and happy that at the end of a long
adoption process, the child's welfare is upheld"."At the end of the day, it is about what is in the child's best interest," Mr Cheong of
Eversheds Harry Elias LLP said
"Being recognised as a legitimate child and having his long term residential status met have always been our client's primary concerns."
