The Court of Cassation compels France to recognize foreign surrogacy arrangements.

France's highest court, the Court of Cassation, issued a landmark ruling on Friday, July 3rd, concerning surrogacy. The court now holds that France must recognize foreign court decisions establishing the legal parentage between a child born through surrogacy and their intended parents. This legal precedent applies even though the practice remains illegal within France. The case examined involved a French male couple living in Canada who had used two surrogacy arrangements abroad.

Guarantees demanded by the Court

The Court, however, sets a strict framework for this recognition. Foreign decisions must offer a number of guarantees to be validated by the French authorities. This requirement aims to regulate a practice that deeply divides French public opinion and political circles. Surrogacy remains prohibited in France, but the courts regularly encounter situations where French citizens have circumvented this prohibition by going abroad.

This decision clarifies the legal situation of many couples who have started a family outside of France through surrogacy. It de facto recognizes the parentage established by foreign courts, while maintaining the principle of prohibiting surrogacy in France. The Court of Cassation is thus continuing a jurisprudential trend that began in recent years, aimed at protecting the best interests of children born under these circumstances.