A gay man in Singapore has been granted the right to legally adopt his four-year-old son, who was conceived via surrogacy in the U.S., in a landmark ruling by Singapore’s highest court on Monday.
Neither same-sex marriage nor same-sex adoption is recognised in the city-state.
The man’s adoption bid had been shot down by a lower court in a ruling in December 2017.
His failed attempt to get the adoption legalised in 2017 left the man with no parental rights over the young child.
He then took his case to Singapore’s high court.
In its judgment on Monday, the court ruled that it was a “statutory imperative to promote the welfare
of the child … to regard his welfare as first and paramount.”
In the ruling, the chief justice said the court had taken into account Singapore’s official policy on same-sex families.
But the court found that the “welfare of the child would be significantly promoted if an adoption order
was made,” the man’s lawyers said after the judgment was delivered.
A 2017 Straits Times article said the man had first inquired at the Ministry for Social and Family Development about the possibility of adoption but was informed that the ministry was unlikely to recommend an adoption.
The man then travelled to the US where his sperm was used to fertilise an egg by a donor via in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
The embryo was later transplanted into a surrogate, who delivered the baby in the US.
(dpa/NAN)
