by Tony Rucinski, TCW
IN Montreal a ‘throuple’ of three polyamorous men have adopted a three-year-old girl.
The men are seeking to have all three of them recognised as her legal parents. Their bid comes hard on the heels of a bizarre ruling in Quebec in April ordering the Civil Code to allow more than two legal parents.
For what possible reason? You may well ask. It is this: capping ‘filiation’ at two parents sends the message that only ‘so-called “normal” families, with a maximum of two parents, represent family structures that are valid and worthy of legal recognition’.
Britain is not quite there yet, but it’s heading that way rapidly. UK law has not lost its final vestiges of sanity and moral sense; it still limits legal parenthood to two. However it already allows more than two adults to share parental responsibility, the decision-making power over a child’s life.
Our courts are edging towards the boundary. In X and Another v B and Another (2022), a High Court judge granted a parental order to two male co-parents, even though one remained married and living with his wife, holding that an ‘enduring family relationship’ need not be romantic or exclusive.
Some legal commentators are now openly asking whether the UK should allow more than two legal parents.