Mother Takes 'baby X' Law to Human Rights Court

An Irish woman plans to take France to the European court of human rights for refusing her the right to reclaim a baby she willingly gave to the French state for adoption more than two years ago.

Karen Taher, a 37-year-old businesswoman from Dublin, travelled to France in February 2002 to make the most of a law which allows women to give birth anonymously.

Mrs Taher, married with one child, conceived the second child in an extramarital affair.

The baby was born in the small town of Seclin, south of Lille, on February 18 and, according to reports, the next day Mrs Taher signed her baby into the care of the local authorities. An x was marked on the birth certificate where the parents' names should be.

By May the child was adopted. But in July Mrs Taher changed her mind.

When she tried to reclaim the child from the state she found that it was too late: she had missed the two months within which she could reclaim the child.

After a string of court cases in which she claimed that she had been misinformed about the two-month time limit the high court ruled against her on April 6. There is no further appeal. Mrs Taher has decided to take her case to the European court of human rights. Her lawyer does not expect it to reverse the French ruling but hopes to question the legality of the French system.

"Essentially this is about working out whether the French system ... is compatible with the requirements of the European convention on human rights such as the right to family life and the right of a child to know where it came from, " said her French lawyer, Thomas Haas.

France and Italy are the only EU members which have legal provisions for mothers to "abandon" their children to the state. In France the law was introduced in 1941 to resolve the problem of thousands of French women who conceived children with German soldiers. Under the law single mothers or couples must consult a hospital psychologist and social services advisers before deciding to register the child "under x".

Mothers are given up to 14 days after the birth to reach their decision to give up their rights as parents. In the case of Mrs Taher, the decision was made in a day. Mrs Taher claims she was not given sufficient advice.

Women are given the option to leave some information for the child to trace them but most do not. As a result, there are growing numbers of "angry xs" and "shadow mothers" demanding the right to find their natural parents or offspring. One woman born anonymously took her case to the European court of human rights last year, but the court ruled in favour of French law.

"I'm sorry to say it, but this Irish woman should not have come to France to have her child," said Fanny Ammouche, a member of the Association of Shadow Mothers, who found her son, aged 19, three years ago.

"The world has changed but this law has not budged. Bizarrely, it seems the French state does not want to change it. As long as they have this law, they have a perfect baby bank for those who want to adopt a child with absolutely no identity," Ms Ammouche said.

The government estimates that 560 babies were registered "under x" in France in 2000. The number is falling. Only 20 years ago there were as many as 10,000 anonymous births each year. There are thought to be around 400,000 people in France currently trying to find out who their biological parents are.