STAND. COM. REP. NO. 881

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1231

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 1231 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PARENTAGE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to adopt portions of the Uniform Parentage Act of 2017 to update existing law.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Judiciary; Department of the Attorney General; Hawaii State LGBTQ+ Commission; Commission to Promote Uniform Legislation; Pride at Work Hawaiʻi; Uniform Law Commission; Fertility Institute of Hawaii; Advanced Reproductive Medicine & Gynecology of Hawaii, Inc.; Stonewall Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi; Lambda Law Hawaiʻi; Hawaii Women Lawyers; and sixteen individuals.

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the United States Donor Conceived Council, Donor Sibling Registry, Right to Know, Coalition for Truth and Transparency in Adoption, and fourteen individuals.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from Seed Scout, LLC and one individual.

Your Committee finds that Act 156, Session Laws of Hawaii 2023 (Act 156), created a task force to examine the State's current parentage laws that narrowly confine concepts of family, parenthood, and parental rights to heterosexual unions. The task force is comprised of representatives of the Department of the Attorney General, Department of Health, Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, Hawaii State Commission on Fatherhood, and other individuals with relevant experience in health care and family law. Your Committee further finds that there have been many changes to science, society, and the law that make many provisions in chapter 584, Hawaii Revised Statutes, obsolete or completely lacking. This measure uses the findings and recommendations of the task force created by Act 156 to bring the State's parentage laws in line with best practices nationwide and reinforce the State's commitment to equality, inclusion, and family justice.

Your Committee notes that the forms reflecting the changes in this measure are available in appendix B of the report submitted to the Legislature by the task force created by Act 156.

Your Committee further notes that this measure, as written, would codify anonymous gamete donation into the State's laws by selectively adopting an outdated version of article 9 of the Uniform Parentage Act of 2024. In contrast, the updated article 9, which was approved by the Uniform Law Commission, would require gamete donors to agree, before donation, to be identifiable to an adult donor conceived person upon request. Given that anonymous gamete donation in Hawaiʻi has broad impacts beyond the State, as gametes collected in Hawaiʻi are frequently shipped nationally and internationally, your Committee believes that amendments to this measure are necessary to ensure that donor-conceived individuals have access to information about their genetic origins.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting language to require that the Child Support Enforcement Agency be made a party to the action if public assistance moneys are or have been paid for the support of the subject child;

(2) Clarifying that for records pertaining to proceedings to adjudicate parentage, birth records, and surrogacy agreements under the new chapter established by this measure, unless a court orders otherwise, a petition and any other document related to the record or agreement shall not be open to inspection by any individual other than the parties to the proceeding, a child conceived by assisted reproduction under the agreement, their attorneys, and the Department of Health, unless required by exigent circumstances;

(3) Deleting language that would have codified anonymous gamete donation in the State;

(4) Updating relevant sections of the Hawaii Uniform Probate Code for clarity and consistency; and

(5) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1231, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1231, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

________________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair