Laura Ashmore and Jennifer Williams are sisters. After that, their relationship becomes more complex. When Ms. Ashmore and her husband learned a few years ago that they could not conceive a child, Ms. Williams stepped in and offered to become pregnant with a donor sperm on behalf of the couple, and give birth to the child. The baby, Mallory, was born in September 2007 and adopted by Ms. Ashmore and her husband.

Ms. Williams, who has a lesbian partner, had a biological child, Jamison, who was conceived through a sperm donor, too. And the sisters wondered how to describe the relationship between Mallory and Jamison.

"Mallory is my daughter and Jennifer is her aunt," said Ms. Ashmore. At home, Jamison sometimes refers to Mallory as his sister. But at school, said Ms. Williams, "she's his cousin." The sperm donors, they agreed, had no place on the family tree.

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Laura M. Holson is an award-winning reporter who currently writes about communications, media and the mobile lifestyle from New York. nbsp

The man, who has not missed one day of contact with his 9 year old daughter, pleaded before a NSW judge not to agree the request by the birth mother's lesbian ex-partner.

"She knows me as her father. She know me as her parent," he told the court.

"The person who's going to suffer is my daughter. She knows that her father is going to be removed from her life. She's going to have three mothers and no father and I think the whole thing is an absolute outrage."

NSW law provides for only two parents to be listed on the birth certificate, and according to the Sydney Morning Herald, this case highlights the legal inadequacies when dealing with multi-parent families.

Before the child's birth in 2001, the lesbian couple, wrote to the man referring to him as "daddy" and talking about their future as a family together.

The man, over the years, contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the care and education of 'his daughter' and while away, allowed the birth mother to live in his house because she was short of money.

The birth mothers ex-partner wanted the father removed from the birth certificate to reduce confusion with the likes of government departments and schools.

Recognising the powerful symbolism of being on a birth certificate, a reluctant Judge Walmsley said he would probably have to grant the request.

He will give his decision next month.

Sources:

• SMH
• Image: Daily Mail