Transgender woman not legal parent of child born from own frozen sperm, Japan court rules

A male-to-female transgender person cannot be a legal parent to a child conceived with sperm frozen prior to their transition, a Japanese court ruled Friday.

The ruling pertains to a transgender woman, a biological male, who froze sperm prior to undergoing transition surgery. The individual then helped to conceive a child using the preserved sperm, but a Japanese high court says they cannot be the legal guardian of children conceived that way, according to the Daily Mail.

Japan requires transgender people to undergo transition surgery before they can legally change their gender.

The unidentified individual in this case had two daughters with the same biological woman, but one of them was conceived using frozen sperm after the transition.

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The court has ruled that only the daughter born prior to the surgery is legally the person’s child.

Japan has required that transgender people undergo transition surgery and sterilization since 2004.

The Japanese Supreme Court struck down a challenge to the law in 2019.