Singapore’s High Court has allowed a gay man to legally adopt the son he and his partner had via a surrogate. Its a landmark ruling in the conservative country where same-sex activity is still illegal.

The decision overturns a 2017 ruling that said the man could not formally adopt the child because they were born to a surrogate in the USA via in vitro fertilisation. Neither surrogacy or IVF treatment is available to gay men in the country.

Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said the court was not showing support for same-sex families but was taking into consideration the welfare of the child.

The man, who is a doctor, paid $200,000 for a women in the USA to carry the child. The court ruled that the man who is the biological parent, the sperm donor, would be recognised as the child’s parent, but it would not grant any rights to his same-sex partner.

The decision comes as pressure grows on the Singaporean government to decriminalise homosexuality. Last year at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) British Prime Minister Theresa May apologised for the homophobic laws that had been left around the globe from Britain’s colonial days, and offered to assist any country that now wanted to remove the outdated legislation.

Earlier this year India decriminalised homosexuality, and there is now pressure on Singapore and neighbouring Malaysia.

OIP Staff