Hong Kong Ordinances

PARENT AND CHILD ORDINANCE - SECT 10

Meaning of "father" where birth or pregnancy results from medical treatment

(1) This section applies in the case of a child who is being or has been
carried by a woman as the result of the placing in her of an embryo or of
sperm and eggs or her artificial insemination.

(2) If-

   (a)  at the time of the placing in her of the embryo or the sperm and eggs
        or her insemination, the woman was a party to a marriage; and

   (b)  the creation of the embryo carried by her was not brought about with
        the sperm of the other party to the marriage, then, subject to
        subsection (5), the other party to the marriage shall be regarded as
        the father of the child unless it is shown that he did not consent to
        the placing in her of the embryo or the sperm and eggs or to her
        insemination (as the case may be).

(3) If no man is regarded, by virtue of subsection (2), as the father of the
child but-

   (a)  the woman and her male partner together obtained treatment  services
        in the course of which the embryo or the sperm and eggs were placed in
        the woman or she was artificially inseminated; and

   (b)  the creation of the embryo carried by her was not brought about with
        the sperm of that man, then, subject to subsection (5), that man shall
        be regarded as the father of the child.

(4) Where a person is regarded as the father of the child by virtue of
subsection (2) or (3), no other person is to be regarded as the father of the
child.

(5) Subsections (2) and (3) do not apply to-

   (a)  any child who, by virtue of any Ordinance or other rule of law, is
        regarded as the child of the parties to a marriage; or

   (b)  any child to the extent that the child is regarded by virtue of
        adoption as not being the child of any person other than the adopter
        or adopters.

(6) Where the sperm of a man other than-

   (a)  the other party to the marriage; or

   (b)  the man referred to in subsection (3), was used, that man is not to be
        regarded as the father of the child.

(7) For the purposes of the law of succession, where-

   (a)  the sperm of a man was used after his death; or

   (b)  any embryo was used after the death of the man with whose sperm the
        embryo was created, that man is not to be regarded as the father of
        the child.

(8) The references in subsection (2) to the parties to a marriage at the time
there referred to-

   (a)  are to the parties to a marriage subsisting at that time, unless a
        judicial separation was then in force; but

   (b)  include the parties to a void marriage if either or both of them
        reasonably believed at that time that the marriage was valid; and for
        the purposes of this subsection it shall be presumed, unless the
        contrary is shown, that one of them reasonably believed at that time
        that the marriage was valid.

(9) This section applies whether the woman was in Hong Kong or elsewhere at
the time of the placing in her of the embryo or the sperm and eggs or her
artificial insemination. (Enacted 1993) [ cf. 1990 c. 37 s. 28 U.K.]