ECJ to give opinion on case of Irish woman who had child by surrogate

Irish Times ^ | Fri, Sep 27, 2013, 07:37 | Suzanne Lynch

[Olog-hai]

The European Court of Justice will today issue a legal opinion on a landmark case involving an Irish teacher who claims she was unfairly denied paid adoption or maternity leave following the birth of her child through a surrogacy arrangement.

In April 2010, a surrogate mother in California gave birth to a child for the woman, known as Ms. Z, and her husband. Although Ms. Z has healthy ovaries and is otherwise fertile, she has no uterus and cannot support a pregnancy.

During the surrogate pregnancy, Ms. Z applied to her school for adoption leave, but was refused paid leave of absence and offered only unpaid parental leave. …

[RginTN]

Sad irony, single mother wanted a child so badly she’s going to put said child into a day care center when she returns to work.

[nathanbedford]

So it appears that a European Union Court sitting in a foreign land will find that it has jurisdiction over an Irish citizen suing Irish corporation over an employment benefits dispute in Ireland. Thus we see the sovereignty of the nation transferred to the European Union.

Calling Nigel Ferage.

[Olog-hai]

Oh indeed.

That was actually sealed by Eamon de Valera himself, signing Ireland’s Third Amendment, which gave European law supremacy over Irish law.

Of course, despite the “ever closer union” platitudes of the EU, the power from the top will be maintained by inflaming divisions between Irish and English, Spanish and Catalan, ad infinitum.

[paudio]

According to the article, Ms. Z has a husband.

[lee martell]

Surrogacy is coming out of the shadows. It will be confusing for the irish traditionalists; is she the Mother? Well, yes and no.

[Tax-chick]

From the standpoint of leave from work, it seems fairly obvious that this situation could be considered equivalent to adoption. The purpose of parental leave in cases of adoption is for the parent to care for the child, not to recover from childbirth.

[RginTN]

According to the article, Ms. Z has a husband.

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Doesn’t mean much as she’s going back to work after getting a child thru this process.