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In a victory for unconventional families, a sperm donor has found solace in being granted permission to see his daughter after a prolonged legal battle with a lesbian couple to secure his parental rights. The Sunday Times reports that the man had been embroiled in a wrangle with the child’s mother, who is in a life partnership with another woman, since 2019. He provided sperm for the mother to conceive, believing they would co-parent but live apart. However, the couple wanted to raise the child as their own and tried to restrict his access. The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) handed down the judgment on Wednesday. The mother, who is from Europe, conceived in 2018 through artificial insemination after hunting for a donor who satisfied ‘specific ethnic requirements’ on a platform that connects people who wish to co-parent or become sperm donors.
The man, who is Zulu, initially ticked the right boxes and was involved in check-up visits to the gynaecologist during the pregnancy – having been introduced as the ‘father of the unborn child’. The Sunday Times notes that tensions flared in August 2019 when the couple said they planned to raise the child, but he wanted to retain full parental rights and responsibilities. Judge Bashier Vally ruled last week that he be regarded as a ‘gamete donor’ but granted him access to the child at various times. Vally ruled that ‘no co-parenting agreement was reached between them’. ‘He has shown a commitment toward (the child),’ Vally said. ‘The commitment commenced pre-birth and continued for a few months after birth. The commitment shown was undoubtedly genuine. He has contributed financially towards her expenses and to this day still does.’ Vally said the man ‘certainly qualifies to be granted contact with the child in these circumstances. Vally was scathing in an assessment of how regulations on artificial fertilisation in SA were flouted in this instance, excluding various screening processes and without the assistance of qualified medical practitioners.
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