Bloodlines and Belonging: Time to Abandon Ius Sanguinis? 75 it only if they relinquish any other citizenship before their 23rd birthday. In 2011 the Greek Council of State halted an attempt to introduce ius soli citizenship in Greece4 by claiming that ius sanguinis is a superior constitutional principle whose transgression would lead to the ‘decay of the nation’.5 Inadequate Consider the following two real cases. Samuel was born in November 2008 in Kiev by a Ukrainian surrogate mother hired by Laurent and Peter, a married gay couple of Belgian and French citizenship respectively.6 Samuel was conceived through in vitro fertilisation of an egg from an anonymous donor with Laurent’s sperm. Upon his birth and according to practice, the surrogate mother refused to assume parental responsibility and thus transferred full parentage rights to Samuel’s biological father. When Laurent requested a Belgian passport for Samuel, the Belgian consular authorities refused on grounds that Samuel was born through a commercial surrogacy arrangement, which was unlawful according to Belgian law. After more than two years of battles in court, during which Laurent and Peter also attempted and failed to smuggle Samuel out of Ukraine through the help of a friend pretending to be Samuel’s mother, a Brussels court recognised Laurent’s parentage rights and ordered authorities to deliver Samuel a Belgian passport. With it, Samuel was able to leave Ukraine and settle with Laurent and Peter in France. 4 5 6 Christopoulos, D. (2011), ‘Greek State Council strikes down ius soli and local voting rights for third country nationals. An Alarming Postscript to the Greek Citizenship Reform’, Citizenship News, EUDO Citizenship Observatory, available at http://globalcit.eu/ greek-state-council-strikes-down-ius-soli-and-local-voting-rights-for-thirdcountry-nationals-an-alarming-postscript-to-the-greek-citizenship-reform/ The Greek parliament has recently pushed forward another proposal regarding ius soli in an attempt to overcome the deadlock. See Christopoulos, D. (2015), The 2015 reform of the Greek Nationality Code in brief, Florence: EUDO Citizenship Observatory, Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies, European University Institute, available at http://globalcit.eu/wp-content/ plugins/rscas-database-eudo-gcit/?p=file&appl=countryProfiles&f=The%20 2015%20reform%20of%20the%20Greek%20Nationality%20Code%20in%20 brief.pdf European Parliament (2013), A comparative study on the regime of surrogacy in EU Member States. Directorate-General of Internal Affairs, Policy Department: Citizen’s Rights and Constitutional Affairs, available at http:// www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document. html?reference=IPOL-JURI_ET(2013)474403.