Canadian court redefines family

OTTAWA: A Canadian court has effectively redefined family structure in recognising a woman as the third parent of her longtime lesbian lover's young son.

The Ontario Court of Appeal angered religious groups when it ruled in the parental custody case late Tuesday that the same-sex couple and the five-year-old boy's father could all legally claim to be his parents.

The decision reversed a 2003 lower court decision that allowed for only one mother and one father, and in doing so dramatically redefined the country's parental custody laws. The case involved a lesbian couple who, after being together since 1990, decided to have a child with the help of a male friend who would donate sperm and become the child's father.

They wanted the court to recognise the woman who was not the biological mother as a parent. But they also wanted to avoid having her adopt the boy, which under the standing two-parent law would have required the father to give up custody.

In their ruling, the appeals court judges said Canada's 1970s child custody laws were outdated and did not reflect the best interests of the child in the case.

"There is no doubt that the legislature did not foresee for the possibility of declarations of parentage for two women, but that is a product of the social conditions and medical knowledge at the time," the judges wrote. Opponents of the application lamented the decision, saying it opened the "floodgates" to absurd parental claims.