Birth registration, especially the birth certificate, is consistently framed as something which has always operated to document a person's parents and their (biogenetic) ‘origins’. This framing has become more prominent in recent years with the rise in (often queer) families challenging how law should register their families, often being unsuccessful. Analysing the history of birth registration, though, suggests this framing of birth registration is inaccurate. It is only in recent years that birth registration has supposedly taken on a new (or additional) policy aim of facilitating parent-child relationships. This policy also arguably facilitates a particular type of relationship and trans-parent families are focused upon as an example of where such facilitation does not occur. Through documenting the recent resurgence of interest in birth registration, this article aims to clarify the history and purpose(s) of birth registration showing how many assumptions surrounding the function of birth registration are misguided, and to open up discussion as to what its legal purpose(s) should be.

中文翻译：

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英格兰和威尔士出生登记的演变及其在当代法律和社会中的地位

出生登记，尤其是出生证明，一直被认为是记录一个人的父母及其（生物遗传）“起源”的东西。近年来，随着越来越多的家庭（通常是酷儿家庭）挑战法律应如何登记他们的家庭，这种框架变得更加突出，但往往不成功。然而，分析出生登记的历史表明，这种出生登记的框架是不准确的。直到最近几年，出生登记才被认为具有促进亲子关系的新（或附加）政策目标。这项政策也可以说促进了一种特定类型的关系，而透明父母家庭则被视为不存在这种促进的例子。通过记录最近重新兴起的出生登记兴趣，本文旨在澄清出生登记的历史和目的，显示围绕出生登记功能的许多假设被误导，并就其法律目的展开讨论(s) 应该是。