Paige Harris Birth Registration Bill
This bill allows Katherine Elizabeth Harris to be officially recorded as the mother on the birth record of Paige Katherine Elizabeth Harris. This is a special law because Katherine died before Paige was born, and current laws don't allow her name to be on the birth record alongside Paige's father, Kyle Jason Harris. Once this bill passes, Paige's birth record and any future birth certificates will show both her mother and father.
What this affects
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This bill changes how a specific birth record is handled under existing laws, allowing a deceased mother to be named.
The bill would do this by allowing the Registrar-General to enter those details on Paige’s birth record.
Under existing law, a birth certificate issued after a surrogate birth includes the names of the surrogate and their partner as the child’s parents.
Under the Adoption Act 1955 an adoption order is needed to record the name of the intended parents.
Because Katherine Harris died before the birth of Paige Harris, there is no means other than a Private Bill by which Katherine Harris’s name can be added to Paige Harris’s birth record under the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 1995
Progress through Parliament
Have your say
Submissions open once a bill reaches the select committee stage and the committee calls for them. In the meantime, you can write to your local MP about it.
Bill text sourced from legislation.govt.nz (Parliamentary Counsel Office). Arapono’s summary and breakdown are drafted with AI grounded in that official text and reviewed by an Arapono editor for accuracy and neutrality before publishing. Arapono is non-partisan and takes no position on this bill.