Family life has seen massive changes since . Yet a birth certificate from 1837 looks remarkably similar to one today.
To the welcome surprise of many, the of England and Wales – which advises the government on legal reform – is considering including the law on birth certificates in its next round of proposed changes.
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Why might reform be needed to a system that has stood the test of time for so long? It is instinctive to view birth registration as a straightforward bit of bureaucracy that simply records value-neutral facts. However, the legal rules about the information recorded indicate a particular life story as being “normal”.
Developments in family life, and how people understand and experience gender, are putting these rules under increasing pressure.
Recently, people have instigated legal challenges on the basis that they regard the record as inaccurate, or as violating their privacy. One example involved a transgender woman who was recorded as “father” on her children’s birth certificates. Likewise, multiple-parent families are not accommodated by the current system, which permits the registration of two legal parents at most.
Pressing issue
The growth of co-parenting and surrogacy arrangements makes this a pressing issue, given the discriminatory effects of not being legally recognised as a parent.
Other places, including the and , have recently opened up birth registration to more than two parents. Some argue that multiple parenthood is confusing for a child and increases the possibility of conflict between parents, but there is little evidence of this.
Furthermore, children have long been raised in family units beyond the conjugal couple, and two people can fight just as bitterly as three or four.
Confusion about the purpose of birth registration also contributes to legal challenges. I argue that birth registration has always been about recording legal relationships, but the close connection between parental legal status and biogenetic ties means that some have misunderstood it as a record of biological ancestry.
In addition, developments in assisted conception, particularly gamete donation, have heralded calls for birth certificates to record the fact a child was conceived by donation – if not also the identity of those who provide gametes.
At a recent public event on reforming birth certificates run by the , it was fascinating to see how quickly the discussion became dominated by this issue. This happened even though everyone on the expert panel – myself included – argued against such a move, mainly on the basis of family privacy.
Rights and responsibilities
There is another reason not to go down that route. In family law, birth registration is no longer simply a way of verifying legal status. Since 2002, it has also been used as a way to confer parental responsibility, which grants an adult particular rights and obligations in relation to a child.
It is therefore an important social policy tool to facilitate the parent-child legal relationship, rather than just a record of information.
Birth registration plays the important function of establishing the legal identity and personhood of citizens. As a compulsory procedure, which sets down personal information in a document of public record, it is crucial that the system is fit for purpose.
If we fail to modernise something that an increasing number of people feel misrecognised by, we risk undermining its effectiveness. This is the right time to consider reform.
Julie McCandless is assistant professor of medical and family law at the London School of Economics
