[JURIST] The French Court of Cassation [official website, in French] ruled [judgment, in French] on Monday that a woman is allowed to adopt the child of her same-sex spouse conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF). The ruling by the French high court comes following recently enacted laws [JURIST report] regarding same-sex marriage rights. The court held each spouse should have joint parental rights to a child conceived through IVF “since the legal requirements for adoption are met and it is in the interest of the child.” French law only allows reproductive assistance for heterosexual couples, so many same-sex couples have left the country [AP report] to undergo such procedures.

Same-sex adoption rights [JURIST backgrounder] have created controversy worldwide. In May of 2013 Portugal’s Parliament [official website, in Portuguese] voted to approve a law allowing same-sex married couples to adopt [JURIST report] their partners’ children. In February 2013 Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court upheld a law [JURIST report] banning same-sex couples from adopting children. Earlier that week, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that a woman in a same-sex relationship could adopt her partner’s biological child [JURIST report]. Also in February 2013 the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ruled that same-sex couples in a civil union can legally adopt [JURIST report] the non-biological children of their partners.