20 MENNESSON v. FRANCE JUDGMENT stake, the margin allowed to the State will normally be restricted (see, in particular, S.H. and Others v. Austria, cited above, § 94). 78. The Court observes in the present case that there is no consensus in Europe on the lawfulness of surrogacy arrangements or the legal recognition of the relationship between intended parents and children thus conceived abroad. A comparative-law survey conducted by the Court shows that surrogacy is expressly prohibited in fourteen of the thirty-five member States of the Council of Europe – other than France – studied. In ten of these it is either prohibited under general provisions or not tolerated, or the question of its lawfulness is uncertain. However, it is expressly authorised in seven member States and appears to be tolerated in four others. In thirteen of these thirty-five States it is possible to obtain legal recognition of the parent-child relationship between the intended parents and the children conceived through a surrogacy agreement legally performed abroad. This also appears to be possible in eleven other States (including one in which the possibility may only be available in respect of the father-child relationship where the intended father is the biological father), but excluded in the eleven remaining States (except perhaps the possibility in one of them of obtaining recognition of the father-child relationship where the intended father is the biological father) ... 79. This lack of consensus reflects the fact that recourse to a surrogacy arrangement raises sensitive ethical questions. It also confirms that the States must in principle be afforded a wide margin of appreciation, regarding the decision not only whether or not to authorise this method of assisted reproduction but also whether or not to recognise a legal parentchild relationship between children legally conceived as the result of a surrogacy arrangement abroad and the intended parents. 80. However, regard should also be had to the fact that an essential aspect of the identity of individuals is at stake where the legal parent-child relationship is concerned. The margin of appreciation afforded to the respondent State in the present case therefore needs to be reduced. 81. Moreover, the solutions reached by the legislature – even within the limits of this margin – are not beyond the scrutiny of the Court. It falls to the Court to examine carefully the arguments taken into consideration and leading to the solution reached and to determine whether a fair balance has been struck between the competing interests of the State and those directly affected by that solution (see, mutatis mutandis, S.H. and Others v. Austria, cited above, § 97). In doing so, it must have regard to the essential principle according to which, whenever the situation of a child is in issue, the best interests of that child are paramount (see, among many other authorities, Wagner and J.M.W.L., cited above, §§ 133-34, and E.B. v. France [GC], no. 43546/02, §§ 76 and 95, 22 January 2008). 82. In the present case the Court of Cassation held that French international public policy precluded registration in the register of births,