Sir, – In her article "Revised children and family proposals fail to tackle tangled web of family life" (Opinion & Analysis, September 27th), Breda O'Brien is simply incorrect in her assertion that the revised general scheme of the Children and Family Relationships Bill 2014 appears to ignore the Supreme Court's decision in the landmark 2009 case of McD v L. The revised general scheme fully adheres to that ruling because, under its provisions, a same-sex civil partner will not have greater rights than a biological father where her civil partner self-inseminates at home with sperm from a known donor and ultimately gives birth to a child.
This was the case in McD v L and like the biological father in that case, known donors will continue to be able to apply for guardianship and access rights in relation to a child conceived in this manner because the assisted reproduction provisions only enable same-sex civil partners to be treated as the parents of the child where the child was conceived "in a hospital or clinic which provides fertility services". – Yours, etc,
Dr BRIAN TOBIN,
Lecturer in Law,
School of Law, NUI Galway.