Parenting following sperm donation outside of a licensed clinic: MacDougall v SW and Others

Mary Welstead CAP Fellow Harvard Law School; Visiting Professor in Family law University of Buckingham

In MacDougall v SW (2022) a sperm donor specialised in helping lesbian women to become pregnant and then demanded contact with his children. It was a case well covered by the national press. Lieven J considered the factors a court should take into account in determining such a demand and very firmly decided that the father should be excluded from his children’s lives. The judgment also discussed the basis for a court’s identification of a sperm donor and whether a restriction should be imposed to prevent him from making any further applications for contact with his children.

Although Lieven J emphasised the need to be guided by the lodestar provisions of s 1 of the Children Act 1989 she was somewhat selective towards the checklist in s 1(3) of the Act. Little attention was given to the presumption in s 1(2A) that it would generally be beneficial for a child’s welfare that he or she should know both parents and have a relationship with them. 

Was the...