Projet de loi modifiant l'article 57 du Code civil en ce qui concerne la mention du sexe d'un enfant souffrant d'ambiguïté sexuelle.
General information ¶
- Author
- MR Josée Lejeune
- Submission date
- June 24, 2004
- Official page
- Visit
- Status
- Adopted
- Requirement
- Simple
- Subjects
- civil status
Voting ¶
- Voted to adopt
- CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP Open Vld N-VA MR VB
Contact form ¶
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Discussion ¶
April 12, 2007 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)
Full source
Rapporteur Valérie Déom ⚙
I am referring to the written report.
Josée Lejeune MR ⚙
The arrival of a child is synonymous with joy and happiness for the parents and the whole family of the newborn. But what if medical uncertainty persists preventing determining the child’s gender? Every year, in Belgium, several dozen families are experiencing this heavy test of seeing their child suffer from an anomaly to be classified in the category of intersex. Parents are then confronted with a very difficult reality, but that is only the beginning of a long and painful journey to go.
First of all, they will have the way to overcome this situation by looking for answers to their questions with the medical body, finding comfort with their own, and staying present as much time as possible with their child.
This great emotional burden comes with administrative hassles. Article 55 of the Civil Code specifies that the birth declaration must be made within 15 days from the date of the birth. Article 57, however, sets out the mentions necessarily present in the birth certificate such as the day, time, first name and gender of the child. If these conditions are not met, parents may neither receive family allowances nor receive mutual allowance for their child.
In addition, it should be known that several medical examinations are needed, in particular the caryotype examination, in order to determine the sex of the child. As these examinations take time, the 15-day deadline is difficult, or even completely impossible to comply with.
Also, in order not to add unnecessary administrative constraints to their suffering, I propose, Mr. President, Mrs. Minister, dear colleagues, to adapt in the case of sexual ambiguity Article 57 of the Civil Code in order to delay the period after which the sex must be declared by the father, the mother or both parents to the civil status officer. It would be fixed at three months, with a medical certificate. This timeframe, Mrs. Minister, is indeed sufficient - in the current state of medicine - to remove this uncertainty.
Dear colleagues, is the emotional, psychological and medical path of parents facing this heavy reality not difficult enough to add to it administrative problems that they would be happy to overcome?
The Justice Committee unanimously approved this bill, which is more human than political. I now simply call on your common sense and your conscience to do the same right now.