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This is what happens when gay people have kids. The state should take away every gay couples kids right now!
This is just so wrong on so many levels. It's hard for me to believe a god fearing man like Tony Blair could have been fron "Singland'!
When a lesbian couple asked Andy Bathie for a sperm donation, they assured him that would be the end of his parental duties.
But the women have since separated - and he is being ordered to pay for their children's upbringing. More than £5,000 a year is now being docked from the 37-year-old fireman's salary by the Child Support Agency to support Sharon and Terri Arnold's two young children
Mr Bathie has met the four-year-old girl and two-year-old boy just a handful of times.
The financial strain means he and his wife cannot afford to start a family of their own.
He said yesterday: "It was a very expensive favour, considering I am going to be paying until the children are 18."
His position is particularly galling because Sharon Arnold - who is not the children's biological mother - has no legal responsibility towards them, according to fertility law expert Natalie Gamble.
"The law is struggling to keep up with these modern scenarios," she said.
"Until things go wrong it's difficult to say how the law applies."
Mr Bathie, from Enfield, North London, said: "Sharon and Terri had been together for two or three years when they decided they wanted kids and asked friends to help."
He decided to donate his sperm because he had known Sharon, who is in her 30s, since they had dated as teenagers.
She had already had two children by her ex-husband before realising she was a lesbian. Mr Bathie agreed to a home insemination, which resulted in Terri getting pregnant. Two years later, they repeated the arrangement.
"Because I was still friends with them I would go down and see them and the kids would be there," he said.
"It wasn't like I was going to see my son and daughter."
But their friendship ended late last year when he got a call from Terri, telling him she and Sharon had split up.
"The agreement was that there would be no name on the birth certificate and no money would be involved," Mr Bathie said.
"But Terri said she wanted money and when I said no she said she would go to the CSA.
"In November last year I heard from the CSA and the following month they started taking money - before there had even been a paternity test.
"When it turned out I was the father they said they were going to take 40 per cent of my earnings.
"I got that cut down a bit but I am now paying £450 a month until I pay off the arrears. Then it will drop to just below £400."
He added: "I did look into the legal side and understood that, as a couple, they would be the parents, not me.
"The only reason these children are here is because they wanted children as a couple - which means they would take responsibility.
"I'm having money stolen by the Government."
Anyone who donates sperm through a clinic licensed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is given the legal status of "donor".
This protects the man from any legal or financial responsibility towards the child.
But this protection is not available for those who take part in home inseminations.
A spokesman for the Authority said: "If you donate outside the licensed system you don't have legal protection, so you are essentially the father of the child and could be tracked down for CSA payments or anything of that nature."
The Government has now introduced reforms which give equal parenting rights to same-sex couples who have had a civil partnership.
This recognises them as the legal parents of any children who are conceived through sperm donation.
The change comes too late for Mr Bathie, however, and he is calling for the law to be made retroactive. Sharon and Terri Arnold were not available for comment.
But the women have since separated - and he is being ordered to pay for their children's upbringing. More than £5,000 a year is now being docked from the 37-year-old fireman's salary by the Child Support Agency to support Sharon and Terri Arnold's two young children
Mr Bathie has met the four-year-old girl and two-year-old boy just a handful of times.
The financial strain means he and his wife cannot afford to start a family of their own.
He said yesterday: "It was a very expensive favour, considering I am going to be paying until the children are 18."
His position is particularly galling because Sharon Arnold - who is not the children's biological mother - has no legal responsibility towards them, according to fertility law expert Natalie Gamble.
"The law is struggling to keep up with these modern scenarios," she said.
"Until things go wrong it's difficult to say how the law applies."
Mr Bathie, from Enfield, North London, said: "Sharon and Terri had been together for two or three years when they decided they wanted kids and asked friends to help."
He decided to donate his sperm because he had known Sharon, who is in her 30s, since they had dated as teenagers.
She had already had two children by her ex-husband before realising she was a lesbian. Mr Bathie agreed to a home insemination, which resulted in Terri getting pregnant. Two years later, they repeated the arrangement.
"Because I was still friends with them I would go down and see them and the kids would be there," he said.
"It wasn't like I was going to see my son and daughter."
But their friendship ended late last year when he got a call from Terri, telling him she and Sharon had split up.
"The agreement was that there would be no name on the birth certificate and no money would be involved," Mr Bathie said.
"But Terri said she wanted money and when I said no she said she would go to the CSA.
"In November last year I heard from the CSA and the following month they started taking money - before there had even been a paternity test.
"When it turned out I was the father they said they were going to take 40 per cent of my earnings.
"I got that cut down a bit but I am now paying £450 a month until I pay off the arrears. Then it will drop to just below £400."
He added: "I did look into the legal side and understood that, as a couple, they would be the parents, not me.
"The only reason these children are here is because they wanted children as a couple - which means they would take responsibility.
"I'm having money stolen by the Government."
Anyone who donates sperm through a clinic licensed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is given the legal status of "donor".
This protects the man from any legal or financial responsibility towards the child.
But this protection is not available for those who take part in home inseminations.
A spokesman for the Authority said: "If you donate outside the licensed system you don't have legal protection, so you are essentially the father of the child and could be tracked down for CSA payments or anything of that nature."
The Government has now introduced reforms which give equal parenting rights to same-sex couples who have had a civil partnership.
This recognises them as the legal parents of any children who are conceived through sperm donation.
The change comes too late for Mr Bathie, however, and he is calling for the law to be made retroactive. Sharon and Terri Arnold were not available for comment.
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