Couple forced to adopt their own US-born surrogate child to bring him to NZ
A same-sex couple living in the United States have been forced to adopt their own surrogate-born child to allow them to bring him to New Zealand.
The two men are recognised as the boy’s legal parents in the US, and both their names are on his birth certificate.
One of the men is also the biological father of the 2-year-old boy, who was born as a result of a gestational surrogacy arrangement.
Despite all this, the boy’s legal parentage is not recognised in New Zealand law due to the Status of Children Act 1969, which was passed long before such surrogacy arrangements were imagined.
That law recognises the woman who gave birth to the boy and her partner, if she has one, as the legal parents.
This is the case even though the boy was conceived using a donated ovum from another woman, meaning the woman who carried him to term and any partner have no biological connections to the child.
Nor is the boy entitled to New Zealand citizenship, even though his biological father is a citizen and his second father has residency status.
These barriers meant that Immigration NZ had to decline the couple’s application for the child to gain citizenship as part of their plan to move with him to New Zealand.
Instead, Immigration officials told the couple they would need to apply to the Family Court to secure an adoption order as a way to bring him to this country.
All of the people involved in the boy’s conception and birth, in North Carolina in 2024, have been living in the US until now.
Their real names have been redacted from a Family Court decision, the published version of which has given them pseudonyms instead.
The boy has been given the name Piers and his fathers are called George Xiao and Carl Leavitt.
Xiao, Leavitt and Piers all appeared before Family Court Judge Belinda Pidwell via audio-visual link in May.
“I met him and he is a lovely, thriving baby,” Judge Pidwell said of Piers.
But she said that the only way under current New Zealand law to establish the parentage of a child born as the result of a surrogacy arrangement was through adoption.
“It is largely recognised that this is an archaic and artificial process,” the judge said.
“Law reform is under way.”
Law reform now before Parliament
An Improving Arrangements for Surrogacy Bill is before Parliament.
If passed, parents will no longer be required to adopt their surrogate-born children.
Judge Pidwell said she was satisfied that the circumstances of Piers’ birth in the US, and the New Zealand citizenship and residency status of his fathers, made it an “international surrogacy arrangement”.
This gave her jurisdiction to make an adoption order in the Family Court.
“I am fully satisfied that everyone involved consents to the adoption process, which will align the legal position in New Zealand with what has occurred in the State of North Carolina.”
The judge also reviewed a social worker’s comprehensive report on whether the fathers were “fit and proper people” to be the parents of Piers.
“[The report writer] notes that Piers is thriving in their care and concludes that they are able to provide a stable, supporting and loving home environment,” Judge Pidwell said.
“The couple are well supported by family and friends both locally and abroad.
“The social worker assesses both Mr Xiao and Mr Leavitt as being fit and proper people to be parents,” the judge said.
“I endorse that recommendation in full. Piers is a much-wanted and well-cared-for child.”
Judge Pidwell granted a final adoption order.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay.
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