Recognised from birth? Switzerland's debate on co-parents and filiation reform

Since «marriage for all» came into force on 1 July 2022, female couples in Switzerland have been able to marry – yet a gap remains in legal parenthood that many rainbow families feel in everyday life. Under current law, the wife of the birth mother counts as the second parent from the moment of birth only if the child was conceived in Switzerland with a regulated sperm donation that meets the requirements of the Reproductive Medicine Act. In that case, the second mother appears on the birth certificate automatically. In other situations she does not – and that is precisely where the reform debate begins.

In practice this means that if the child was conceived through a private sperm donation, through a sperm bank abroad, or by other routes, the legal relationship with the non-birth mother is not established automatically. She has to go through stepchild adoption – a procedure that takes time, is handled differently from canton to canton, and creates a legal limbo until it is completed. During that period only one parent is legally secured, even though two people share responsibility for the child day to day. In cases of illness, separation, death, travel or dealings with the authorities, this can have real consequences – for the parents, but above all for the child.

That Swiss filiation law no longer fits every contemporary family form is officially acknowledged. In 2019 the Federal Office of Justice set up an interdisciplinary expert group to examine whether the current law on descent and inheritance still matches today's realities of life. Its report identified a clear need for reform: single-parent families, unmarried couples, blended families and rainbow families are largely absent from, or inadequately addressed by, the existing law. The Federal Council took note of the report at the end of 2021 and launched work on modernising family law.

Parliament has taken up the issue several times as well. Motion 22.3235 «Contemporary filiation law», submitted by Councillor of States Andrea Caroni, instructed the Federal Council to draw up concrete revision proposals in several areas – including the challenge of the presumption of paternity, the regulation of private sperm donation, and a statutory right of the child to know its own descent. In parallel, further parliamentary initiatives aimed to recognise parenthood for married same-sex couples from birth even where the child was not conceived via a domestic sperm bank. The precise status and wording of each item can be consulted through Curia Vista, Parliament's official business database.

The Federal Council took a first concrete step on 12 September 2025, adopting a dispatch (Botschaft) to Parliament for an amendment to the Civil Code that would make stepchild adoption easier in certain cases. Children who have lived from birth with their legal parent and the intended parent should be able to be adopted more quickly. That eases the burden, but it does not replace automatic recognition from birth in all cases. The parliamentary path has not been smooth: the National Council first backed the simplified stepchild adoption, but the Council of States referred the proposal back to the Federal Council. It wants the matter folded into the broader reform of filiation law and reproductive-medicine law – not least in view of the child's right to know its own descent. A swift solution therefore remains open for now.

Queer Switzerland follows the reform of filiation law as a national dossier and will update this piece as the state of the legislation changes. For the binding, official status, see the Federal Office of Justice page on «Parenthood and descent» and Curia Vista. This article is informational context and does not replace legal advice; for a specific family situation, individual counsel is worthwhile. Support and up-to-date information are available from the umbrella organisation for rainbow families and from Switzerland's LGBTIQ organisations, among others.