Input into proposed amendments to Civil Code related to step-parent adoptions

This legal memorandum addresses child rights concerns regarding proposed amendments to the Civil Code; those proposed amendments may be, at least in part, a response to decisions from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The proposed amendments address “the adoption of a child of a spouse or partner conceived through private sperm donation, (possibly anonymous) sperm donation or other medically assisted procreation methods authorized abroad, including surrogate motherhood.” The stated goal of the amendments is to “simplify and speed up” the process to avoid a period of time when “the child, who has only one parent, is not fully protected legally.”

This memorandum particularly focuses on the situation of children born from :

• use of anonymous gametes in assisted reproductive technology (ART) in cross-border situations, in a context where anonymity is currently forbidden in Switzerland
• foreign surrogacy arrangements, in a context where domestic surrogacy is illegal in Switzerland.

For the many reasons outlined in the memorandum, it is contradictory for Swiss law through these proposed amendments to facilitate quicker and easier ways for Swiss residents to evade and violate Swiss law. It seems equally contradictory to obligations under the CRC and other international standards.

Further information: see submission