“This girl is not my daughter, but my granddaughter. She is the daughter of Aless and when she grows up I will tell her that her father was a hero, so that she knows who she is. According to Ana Obregón, the fertilized embryo comes from the genetic material of her deceased son and from an anonymous donor.
The latest revelations of the actress encourage the social debate on surrogacy and force the seams of a regulatory structure that is not designed to air situations of this complexity, based on the fact that surrogacy is not allowed in Spain.
Obregón is the mother of Ana Sandra – that’s what the baby is called – according to Florida law, and is her grandmother, biologically and sentimentally speaking. From the administrative and legal point of view, in Spain the case goes into a labyrinth.
The Law on Assisted Human Reproduction Techniques declares surrogacy contracts null and void. There is a caveat regarding babies born in another country that declares the parentage of the baby through a court ruling, in the case of the state of Florida.
For these cases, a Supreme Court ruling of March 31, 2022 establishes a possible path for administrative regularization in Spain, which is adoption, not filiation (paternity or maternity).
But adoption is an unfeasible alternative for Obregón. It would require a certificate of suitability to exercise parental authority, which could be denied for multiple reasons. The most elementary is that, according to article 175 of the Civil Code, the age difference between the adopter and the adoptee cannot be greater than 45 years, and the actress looks 68.
But in this maze when a door closes a window opens. Article 176.2 of the Civil Code establishes as an exception for age obstacles that the girl “has been in custody for adoption for more than a year or has been under guardianship of the adopter for the same time.”
In other words, Obregón should have no problem adopting and registering Ana Sandra in the Civil Registry within a year, as long as he provides the court ruling issued in the country of origin that certifies the girl’s parentage, as well as the compliance with the rights of the pregnant woman.
With this procedure, Obregón would not appear administratively as a grandmother, according to her wish, but as an adoptive mother, a status that she will not be able to change if it is not through new legal tricks. She would try to get the paternity of Ãlex Lequio (Ana’s son, who died three years ago) while she provided the genetic material for the replacement pregnancy.
In such a case, a guardian (preferably chosen in a notarial document by the deceased parent) would have to take care of the orphaned Ana Sandra. There is no doubt that the role of guardian, with the mandatory approval of a judge, would fall to Ana Obregón.
