Three-parent families may be as good as two, judges rule

In a case which tackled fundamental issues of "biology, human nature and the hand of fate", the Appeal Court judges said the decision to have a child can never be a matter of "dry legal contract" and the father's right to play a role in his son's life had to be recognised.

 Observing that "human emotions are powerful and inconstant", Lord Justice Thorpe said that, despite the women's desire to create "a two-parent lesbian nuclear family", the father was "seeking to offer a relationship of considerable value" to his son.

And he told the court: "It is generally accepted that a child gains by having two parents. It does not follow from that that the addition of a third is necessarily disadvantageous".

The boy's biological mother says she made a pact with the father during a restaurant meeting before conception that she and her lesbian lover would fill the role of "primary parents" and that he would not stand on his paternal rights.

She and her partner said they felt "bitter and betrayed" after the father - the mother's former husband in a "marriage of convenience" to mollify his family - demanded overnight and holiday contact with his son.Read more