Children and Family Relationships Act 2015

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PART 2

Parentage in Cases of Donor-Assisted Human Reproduction

Interpretation (Parts 2 and 3)

4. In this Part and Part 3 —

“birth certificate” means a document issued under section 13(4) of the Act of 2004 in respect of an entry in the register of births;

“civil partner” shall be construed in accordance with section 3 of the Act of 2010;

“cohabitant” shall be construed in accordance with section 172(1) of the Act of 2010;

“DAHR facility” means a place at which a DAHR procedure is performed;

“DAHR procedure” means a donor-assisted human reproduction procedure, being any procedure performed in the State with the objective of it resulting in the implantation of an embryo in the womb of the woman on whose request the procedure is performed, where—

(a) one of the gametes from which the embryo has been or will be formed has been provided by a donor,

(b) each gamete from which the embryo has been or will be formed has been provided by a donor, or

(c) the embryo has been provided by a donor;

“donation facility” means a place at which a person provides and donates his or her gamete, and includes a DAHR facility;

“donor”—

(a) in relation to a gamete, means—

(i) a person who has consented, under section 6 or in the manner referred to in section 26 (1)(b)(ii), to the use in a DAHR procedure of a gamete provided by him or her, or

(ii) the donor of a gamete to which section 26 (6) applies,

and includes a donor of a gamete that is used in the formation of an embryo that is used in a further DAHR procedure, and

(b) in relation to an embryo, means—

(i) a person who has consented under section 14 or 16 or in the manner referred to in section 26 (2)(b)(ii), to the use of the embryo in a DAHR procedure or a further DAHR procedure, or

(ii) the donor of an embryo to which section 26 (6) applies;

“donor-conceived child” means—

(a) a child born in the State, after the commencement of this section, as a result of a DAHR procedure, or

(b) other than in sections 33 to 39 , a child in respect of whom a person has been declared under section 21 or 22 to be his or her parent;

“embryo” means a human embryo formed by the fertilisation of a human egg by a human sperm;

“enactment” means a statute or an instrument made under a power conferred by statute;

“further DAHR procedure” has the meaning it has in section 16 ;

“gamete” means—

(a) a human sperm, which is formed in the body of and provided by a man, or

(b) a human egg, which is formed in the body of and provided by a woman;

“intending mother” means, in relation to a DAHR procedure, a woman who requests the performance of the procedure for the purpose of her becoming the mother of a child born as a result of the procedure;

“intending parent” means, in relation to a DAHR procedure, a person who intends to be the parent, under section 5 , of a child born as a result of the procedure, and includes an intending mother;

“Minister” means the Minister for Health;

“mother” means, in relation to a child, the woman who gives birth to the child;

“operator” means, in relation to a DAHR facility, the person who owns or manages the facility or is otherwise responsible for the running of the facility;

“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations under section 41 ;

“Register” means the register established under section 33 ;

“registered medical practitioner” means a person who is a registered medical practitioner within the meaning of section 2 of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 ;

“registered nurse” means a person whose name is entered for the time being in the nurses division of the register of nurses and midwives established under section 46 of the Nurses and Midwives Act 2011 ;

“relevant donor” means, in relation to a donor-conceived child—

(a) subject to paragraph (b), the donor of a gamete that was used in the DAHR procedure that resulted in the birth of the donor-conceived child, and

(b) in the case of a donor-conceived child who is born as a result of a DAHR procedure or a further DAHR procedure in which a donated embryo was used—

(i) a donor of the embryo who provided a gamete that was used in the formation of the embryo, and

(ii) where applicable, the donor of a gamete that was used in the formation of the embryo.