After the clear approval of the National Council in summer, the Swiss Council of States yesterday also voted in favour of introducing marriage for all in Switzerland.

With 22 votes to 15 (with seven abstentions), the Council of States in the final vote on 1 December clearly supported marriage for all with access to sperm donations for lesbian couples.

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The final vote was a shaky one, because after the approval of the National Council in summer, a month-long dispute flared up in the Council of States over whether a constitutional amendment was needed for marriage for all or whether – as originally decided by the National Council – a simple law would suffice.

Thus, the actual vote was preceded by a vote for or against the necessity of a constitutional amendment. With a narrow majority of 22 to 20 votes, the Council of States finally voted against the constitutional amendment.

Debate not yet finished

In order for the respective commissions to agree on a final proposal, inconsistencies in sperm donation for female couples still need to be clarified. In detail, this concerns the presumption of paternity, which applies in Switzerland as well as in Germany. If a married woman has a child, it is assumed that the husband is the father of the child. But does this presumption also apply to the wife if her wife has a child? And if so, what rights does the biological father have?

As the Neue Züricher Zeitung writes, the following distinction was proposed to the Council of States by an advisory commission:

“If the child was born in Switzerland after a professional sperm donation, the presumption of maternity should apply analogously to the presumption of paternity. If pregnancy occurs by another route – i.e. through a donation in a foreign clinic or a one-night stand – the wife must adopt the child”.

Since the Council of States approved this proposal on the presumption of maternity on 1 December, there is now a difference with the National Council, which must be cleared up before the matter continues formally. This could already be done by 18 December 2020.

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