Seeking Father's Details Affects Mother's Dignity: Court On IVF Technique

The high court said that the state has to provide appropriate forms for registration of births and deaths of children born through such procedures.

With single women's right to conceive through Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), like IVF, being recognised, requiring them to furnish father's name in the form for registering births and deaths of children born through such procedures necessarily affects the right of dignity of the mother as well as the child, the Kerala High Court has said. The high court said that the state has to provide appropriate forms for registration of births and deaths of children born through such procedures. "The right of a single parent/unwed mother to conceive by ART having been recognised, prescriptions of forms requiring mentioning of name of father, the details of which is to be kept anonymous, is violative of their fundamental rights of privacy, liberty and dignity," the court ruled. The ruling by the high court came on a plea by a divorced woman, who got conceived by In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) procedure, challenging the requirement under the Kerala Registration of Births and Deaths Rules, 1970 to mention the father's details.