Our legal system provides rights for, and places obligations on, people in certain types of relationships.

Currently in South Australia same sex couples who give birth to a child together in South Australia are not able to both be recorded as parents on the child's birth certificate.

The ability to both be recorded on a child's birth certificate is called presumption of parentage. Heterosexual parents are both able to be recorded on the birth certificate in South Australia regardless of whether any donor tissues were used in the child's conception. This means not all heterosexual parents who are listed on the birth certificate have a biological link to the child.

A same sex couple who have conceived their child by artificial reproductive technology (ART) are able to give birth interstate and both parents can be recorded on the birth certificate.

Heterosexual partners are able to adopt each others children by means of step parent adoption. Step parent adoption is not available to same sex couples. This prevents the non biological parent from adopting the child and having legal rights to the child

As the same sex family unit is not recognized by the government benefits such as tax concessions for having a dependent child are not available for the non biological child.