PMA post-mortem: how two mothers won the battle of parentage

Two children conceived after the death of the father

The two cases judged on October 14, 2025 shared the same starting point: that of a parental project begun before the father’s death, interrupted by his deaththen continued abroad. In France, posthumous PMA remains prohibited, but Spain authorizes it, provided that the deceased person gave consent while alive.

It is therefore within this legal framework that the two mothers were able to continue their pregnancies. Their children were born in Spain, with birth certificates clearly establishing their parentage: father, mother, son. The problem, This is because upon returning to France this filiation was not recognized by the French civil registry.

First case: a French couple, a common project, a dispute that lasted several years

In the first case, the couple had undertaken a medically assisted procreation process before the future father’s illness. Anticipating the possibility of not surviving, the man had given written consent authorizing the partner to use his gametes in the event of death.

After his death, his mother went to Spain to complete their project. The child is born there and a Spanish birth certificate mentions both parents. But when he requested the transcription in France, the administration refused, believing that the child had been conceived using a method prohibited by French law.

The judicial tribunal first rejected the request, before the Paris Court of Appeal finally validated it. The judges ascertained this the refusal of the transcription harmed the best interests of the minoras his parents were legally established in another European country. In other words, France could not ignore filiation in accordance with the law of the country of birth.

Second case: another trip, but the same recognition

In the second case the facts are similar, but the context is slightly different. The couple, also French, had undertaken sperm banking before serious medical treatment. Upon the father’s death, his partner also decided to go to Spain to continue the proceedings, with the formal agreement left by the deceased.

The child was born in Barcelona and the Spanish birth certificate mentions, once again, both parents. The mother submits a request for transcription to the French consulate, then to the French registry office, which rejects it. After several years of appeal, the Paris Court of Appeal issued a decision identical to that of the first case: the birth certificate must be transcribed in its entiretythus recognizing the paternal filiation.

This recognition gives the child the same rights as a child born to a heterosexual couple in France, particularly in terms of inheritance and civil identity.

An important but limited jurisprudence

These two decisions do not change French law: posthumous PMA remains prohibited in the territory. But they open up an important legal violation.

Referring to the jurisprudence of the Court of Cassation and the European Convention on Human Rights, the Court of Appeal of Paris establishes here the principle of recognition of filiation established abroadin the name of respect for family life.

This means that when a child is born in a country where post-mortem assisted reproduction is legal, France can no longer, in the name of its own law, cancel the parentage of this child. A way to remind us that “ the interests of the child take precedence over the method of conception “.

A decision with symbolic meaning

For the two mothers, these sentences put an end to several years of administrative and legal battle. But beyond their personal history, this double recognition revives the debate on the posthumous APP in France.

The Bioethics Act of 2021 opened PMA to all womenbut he had maintained the ban on using the gametes of a deceased person: a decision that many now consider outdated.

These two cases remind us that parents’ plans do not necessarily end in death, and that the children born from these love stories also deserve to be fully recognized.

Source: Madmoizelle