Proposal for an Appeal to the Dirección General De Seguridad Jurídica y Fe Pública against the negative qualification of the birth registration of those born abroad through surrogacy

Abstract

The Dirección General de Seguridad Jurídica y Fe Pública (DGSJFP), a body dependent on the Ministry of Justice of the Government of Spain, issued an Instruction on updating the registration regime for the parentage of births through surrogacy on April 28, 2025. This Instruction repeals the previous regulations issued by the same governing body; it prevents the application of the mechanisms for extraterritorial validity of foreign decisions in Spain to decisions on parentage of children born through surrogacy originating in other States; and it imposes the obligation on citizens to reconstruct in Spain the parentage already determined abroad. The objectives pursued by the aforementioned Instruction clash head-on, however, with some of the most basic principles of the Spanish legal system. There are more than sufficient legal grounds to support an appeal against the aforementioned Instruction. This work is limited to arguing, in accordance with the Spanish legal system, some of them.