The diagram above is the Asahi's attempt to explain an interesting decision by the Ministry of Justice. If a married couple have a child using a sperm donor rather than the husband's sperm, the child is recognized by the Ministry as the couple's legal offspring. If however, the husband was born a woman but had sex reassignment surgery and changed his family register (as allowed under a 2004 law) to reflect his new gender, then the Ministry has ruled that a child born through the same procedure is illegitimate. A 27 year old legally registered as a man in March 2008 and married a woman the following month. The couple resorted to artificial insemination using the sperm of the husband's younger brother and the woman gave birth to a baby boy in November last year.
Explaining their decision, the Ministry has said that the 2004 special rule allowing people to change their gender on the family register was not intended to be extended to include a legal relationship with a child. The husband in this case has complained that it makes no sense for the law to allow him to marry but not to allow him to have children in the same way as biologically male husbands. The Asahi thinks legislators didn't take into account the repercussions of the 2004 law change when it was passed. In particular, the paper notes that, if a woman marries while she is pregnant, the Civil Code recognizes her husband as the father. The Japan Society of Obstetrics & Gynaecological say that, from their point of view, they have no reason to deny artificial insemination treatment to a legally married couple, regardless of the husband's original gender. Some think the Ministry had no choice but to make the ruling they did and argue that new legislation is required to help the law catch up with actual events.
