Further, the UPA must operate in a gender-neutral manner, that is, it must apply equally to women and men. The statutory means available to establish paternity must also be available, where appropriate, to establish the existence of a mother and child relationship. The UPA mandates in section 106 that the provisions of the UPA relating to determination of paternity apply equally to determinations of maternity. Thus a woman is a legal parent of a child gestated by another woman where she has provided an egg or consented to assisted reproduction with the intention of parenting the resulting child. Section 1983 serves to protect the welfare and best interest of every child born of assisted reproductive technology by ensuring that a child will have the opportunity to have as parents both the person who gives birth to the child and the person who either donated the egg or sperm or the person who consented to the assisted reproduction with the intent to be the parent of the child.

§1964.__Consent to assisted reproduction

1.__Consent.__Consent by a woman and a person who intends to be a parent of a child born to the woman by assisted reproduction must be in a record signed by the woman and the person who intends to be a parent. This requirement does not apply to a donor.

2.__Lack of consent; paternity.__Failure of a person to sign a consent required by subsection 1, before or after birth of the child, does not preclude a finding of parentage if the woman and the person, during the first 2 years of the child's life, resided together in the same household with the child and openly held out the child as their own.

Comment

(This is section 704 of the UPA.)

Source: UPA (1973) § 5; UPC (1993) § 2-114(c).

Subsection (a) requires that a man, whether married or unmarried, who intends to be a parent of a child must consent in a record to all forms of assisted reproduction covered by this article. The amendment clarifies that the requirement of consent does not apply to a male or a female donor.

Subsection (b) provides that even if a husband, or an unmarried man who intends to be a parent of the child, did not