Status of Children Amendment Act 1987 (No. 185 of 1987) , 20 July 1987
Annual Review of Population Law 14: 351-357
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0364-3417 PMID: 12346704 Document Number: 381240
This document contains major provisions of New Zealand's 1987 Status of Children Amendment Act. The Act holds that when a married woman has become pregnant as the result of any use of reproductive technology undertaken with the consent of her husband, then the husband (and specifically not the sperm donor) is considered for all purposes to be the father of any child of the pregnancy. If a woman has undergone: 1) artificial insemination, 2) in vitro fertilization, 3) donor ovum or donor embryo implantation, 4) donor semen intro-fallopian transfer, 5) donor ovum intro-fallopian transfer, or 6) embryo intro-fallopian transfer without her husband's consent, the donor and the child have no legal relationship unless a sperm donor later marries the child's mother. Likewise, the donor of an ovum has no legal relationship with any child of the pregnancy. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, a husband's consent to any of the above procedures is assumed.