Only two things are currently certain in the disputed parenthood of the black twins born to a white couple after an IVF clinic mix-up. First, the sooner it is resolved the better. The idea that the two couples claiming parenthood - one black, one white - should have to wait until November for the family division of the high court to establish parenthood, should shame the legal establishment. The era in which justice shut down in the UK over summer is supposed to be over. Yet though the courts now talk of the need for speedier justice, the battle for the twins proceeds with a snail-like pace. One hearing was held last week; a second is planned for October; and a final hearing is not due until November. The babies are reported to be several months old, which means they will already have established a strong bond with their white providers. The longer the delay, the more disruptive will be the breaking of the bond, and hence the greater reluctance of the courts to sanction it.

The second certainty is that the case is a tragedy for all six people involved: the two couples plus the twins. The law is clear: the mother who gives birth to a child after IVF treatment is the legal mother. Even if the treatment has involved donor eggs, the biological parent is not the legal parent. But have the eggs been donated if the treatment was made in error? Morally, if the mix-up involved the black couple's eggs and sperm being wrongly inserted in the white woman's womb, the twins ought to go to the black couple. The difficulties which the white couple will face in bringing up the twins are truly daunting. Trans-racial adoptions are difficult enough, but this would be far more difficult: when would the twins be told about their true parentage? When would they get access to them? But the mix-up could be more complicated: the white woman's eggs and the black father's sperm. Increasingly, the case looks far more suited to mediation, than letting the lawyers fight it out.