By John Connolly
LONDON, December 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A London firefighter who donated his sperm to allow a lesbian couple to conceive is being forced to pay thousands of pounds in child support now that the couple has broken up.
Andy Bathie, 37, claims he was assured by the couple he would have no personal or financial involvement for the children, but has no legal grounds for the assurance because the donation did not go through a center licensed with the British Child Support Agency (CSA).
Bathie says he is in shock and anger, and that the costs of child support for the two children born from the donation will prevent him from being able to afford having children with his wife.
“I don’t have any particular ill will,” he said, “It’s the fact that I still even now don’t see why I should have to pay for another couple’s children.”
But UK law does not yet recognize that they are not Bathie’s children. The law only tries to nullify the need for a biological father in the case of a licensed clinic, but ministers have drawn up reforms to the law giving equal parenting rights to same-sex couples who “marry.”
A spokeswoman for CSA said: “Unless the child is legally adopted, both biological parents are financially responsible for their child – the Child Support Agency legislation is not gender or partnership based,” said a spokeswoman for the CSA said.
Bathie has begun unprecedented court action to ensure he cannot be recognized as a legal parent to the children.
“I would never have agreed to this unless they had been living as a committed family,” Bathie told the Evening Standard Newspaper. “And now I can’t afford to have children with my own wife – it’s crippling me financially.”
See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:
Canadian Court OK’s Ban on Active Homosexuals from Sperm Donation due to AIDS
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07012903.html
Sperm Donor Fathers Children of Lesbian Couples Against His Request
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jul/06070501.html
Sperm Donor Siblings, Mothers, Connect Online
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06031009.html