Mater semper certa est

Mater semper certa est ("The mother is always certain") is a

Since egg donation, or embryo donation with surrogacy, started using the technique of in-vitro fertilization, the principle of Mater semper certa est has been shaken, since a child may have a genetic and a gestational ("birth"), let alone a "social", mother who are different individuals. Since then some countries have converted the old natural law to an equivalent codified law; in 1997 Germany introduced paragraph 1591 Mutterschaft ("motherhood") of the BGB (civil code) reading Mutter eines Kindes ist die Frau, die es geboren hat ("the mother of a child is the woman who gave birth to it"). This has also been tested in the British case of Freddy McConnell.^[2]

The Roman law principle, however, does not stop at the mother, in fact it continues with pater semper incertus est ("The father is always uncertain"). This was regulated by the law of pater est, quem nuptiae demonstrant ("the father is he to whom marriage points"). Essentially

• Lydia Fairchild, a woman whose DNA tests seemed to imply she was not the mother of the child she just gave birth to.
• Partus sequitur ventrem
• Matrilineality

Notes