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the baby's nationality?
From Cayman Net News
The parents of Lateisha Julene Clarke, the baby born on Cayman Airways Ltd (CAL) flight 600 to Jamaica on Tuesday, 2 October, now face difficulties with registration of birth.
Baby Lateisha’s birth created a major stir in the Cayman Islands after she said a doctor at the George Town Hospital in Grand Cayman convinced her to travel to her homeland to have the baby because of the high cost of delivering a premature baby locally. Her water broke before she received permission from the doctor to fly to Jamaica.
Shellesha Woodstock, the baby’s mother, said: “The hospital (Cornwall Regional Hospital in Jamaica) told me that I couldn’t register my baby in Jamaica because she wasn’t born there.”
The mother added, “I am worried because I want the baby to get registered”.
The mother and child were taken to the hospital in St James on their arrival in Montego Bay after the midair birth on the Cayman Islands national flag carrier.
Ms Woodstock said a nurse informed her that she had to go to Kingston for information on what to do. This was likely to be a reference to the Registrar General’s Department located in Twickenham Park, Spanish Town, which deals with the registration of births, deaths and marriages in Jamaica.
Baby Lateisha’s father, Laflin Clarke, confirmed that the Honorary Jamaican Consulate in the Cayman Islands was offering assistance on this matter.
“I haven’t got a response (from the Consulate) yet,” he said. Following a request for comments on this issue, the Consulate said the investigation into the birth was almost concluded and that a public statement would be made in the near future.
Efforts to get clarification on in-air births from the Registrar General, Delano Solomon, proved unsuccessful. However, a source at the General Registry in George Town said they believed the nationality of the child would be determined by the airspace of the country that the flight was in when the baby was delivered.
Procedures and recommendations for how properly to classify the geographic details of an in-air birth vary from country to country. The United Nations reportedly considers a child born in-flight to have been born in the airplane’s registered country.
Baby Lateisha, who was born prematurely at 29 weeks, has been diagnosed with a hole in her heart. Ms Woodstock said that, following her last check up at the Cornwall Regional Hospital, her daughter has been referred to The Children’s Heart and Pediatric Centre in Kingston for further medical care.
This is not the first time that an in-air birth has been of interest in the Cayman Islands. Forty-one years ago, on 28 February 1966, Lolita Bodden-Esteban was born on a Cayman Brac Airways (CBA) flight between Little Cayman and Grand Cayman.
Mrs Esteban said: “I understand that my mother was having difficulties delivering me and so they were bringing her over to Grand Cayman when I was born.”
She further explained that her birth certificate and passport has “CBA plane, in air” as her place of birth.
Despite numerous comments about the unusual place of birth she maintains that, “I have travelled to at least 15 different countries and have never had a problem with entry.”
She added that because of the unique circumstances surrounding her birth, “I used to get free tickets from Cayman Airways as a little girl, but that stopped when I was about 14 years old.”
From Cayman Net News
The parents of Lateisha Julene Clarke, the baby born on Cayman Airways Ltd (CAL) flight 600 to Jamaica on Tuesday, 2 October, now face difficulties with registration of birth.
Baby Lateisha’s birth created a major stir in the Cayman Islands after she said a doctor at the George Town Hospital in Grand Cayman convinced her to travel to her homeland to have the baby because of the high cost of delivering a premature baby locally. Her water broke before she received permission from the doctor to fly to Jamaica.
Shellesha Woodstock, the baby’s mother, said: “The hospital (Cornwall Regional Hospital in Jamaica) told me that I couldn’t register my baby in Jamaica because she wasn’t born there.”
The mother added, “I am worried because I want the baby to get registered”.
The mother and child were taken to the hospital in St James on their arrival in Montego Bay after the midair birth on the Cayman Islands national flag carrier.
Ms Woodstock said a nurse informed her that she had to go to Kingston for information on what to do. This was likely to be a reference to the Registrar General’s Department located in Twickenham Park, Spanish Town, which deals with the registration of births, deaths and marriages in Jamaica.
Baby Lateisha’s father, Laflin Clarke, confirmed that the Honorary Jamaican Consulate in the Cayman Islands was offering assistance on this matter.
“I haven’t got a response (from the Consulate) yet,” he said. Following a request for comments on this issue, the Consulate said the investigation into the birth was almost concluded and that a public statement would be made in the near future.
Efforts to get clarification on in-air births from the Registrar General, Delano Solomon, proved unsuccessful. However, a source at the General Registry in George Town said they believed the nationality of the child would be determined by the airspace of the country that the flight was in when the baby was delivered.
Procedures and recommendations for how properly to classify the geographic details of an in-air birth vary from country to country. The United Nations reportedly considers a child born in-flight to have been born in the airplane’s registered country.
Baby Lateisha, who was born prematurely at 29 weeks, has been diagnosed with a hole in her heart. Ms Woodstock said that, following her last check up at the Cornwall Regional Hospital, her daughter has been referred to The Children’s Heart and Pediatric Centre in Kingston for further medical care.
This is not the first time that an in-air birth has been of interest in the Cayman Islands. Forty-one years ago, on 28 February 1966, Lolita Bodden-Esteban was born on a Cayman Brac Airways (CBA) flight between Little Cayman and Grand Cayman.
Mrs Esteban said: “I understand that my mother was having difficulties delivering me and so they were bringing her over to Grand Cayman when I was born.”
She further explained that her birth certificate and passport has “CBA plane, in air” as her place of birth.
Despite numerous comments about the unusual place of birth she maintains that, “I have travelled to at least 15 different countries and have never had a problem with entry.”
She added that because of the unique circumstances surrounding her birth, “I used to get free tickets from Cayman Airways as a little girl, but that stopped when I was about 14 years old.”
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