A Private Member’s Bill to recognise same sex couples’ parental rights has been proposed in the Legislative Council.

The ‘Leave to Introduce’ was moved on Tuesday, March 8 by Tanya August-Hanson MLC.

She is calling for a Private Member’s Bill to amend Part nine of the Children and Young Persons Act 2001.

The bill will seek to ‘make certain new provision in relation to fertilisation and surrogacy’ and, in particular, to amend the meaning of ‘mother’ and ‘father’ – ‘so as to recognise that same sex couples may wish to have children using modern fertilisation and embryology methods’.

It will also seek to amend the Civil Registration Act 1984 to allow same sex couples to register births and for connected purposes.

Part nine of the Children and Young Persons Act 2001 provides traditional definitions of both ‘mother’ and ‘father’.

For instance, it defines the meaning of ‘mother’ as: ‘The woman who is carrying or has carried a child as a result of the placing in her of an embryo or of sperm and eggs, and no other woman, is to be treated as the mother of the child.’

It goes on to clarify that that does not apply to mothers who have adopted their children, but it does not make the same exemption for LGBT+ couples.

It is hoped that the island could replicate a similar law – the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act – which has been in place in England and Wales since 2008.

Miss August-Hanson cited cases in the island in which same sex female couples have tried to register their child with both of their names as parents on the birth certificate – but were unable to do so.

In the Isle of Man, only a mother and father can register a child’s birth and claim parental responsibility – a fact which Miss August-Hanson argued ‘precludes same sex parents’.

Presently, two female partners could become parents, but only the female that carried the child would be the mother, whilst the second female partner would not be the legal parent of the child.

The second female parent could however obtain parental responsibility.

Similarly, there are issues for same sex male couples.

In her address to the Legislative Council, Miss August-Hanson said: ‘The parent-child bond is uniquely special, regardless of the formation of that family.

‘On this International Women’s Day, it seems appropriate that I can move this Leave to Introduce as a woman, as a mother, and as an LGBTQIA+ ally.’

The motion was passed unanimously by the Legislative Council.