A Singaporean court has turned down a request by a gay man to adopt a boy that he fathered through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and surrogacy in the United States, Straits Times reported.

The boy, now four years old, lives with the man in question, who is a doctor in a long-term same-sex relationship. He reportedly paid a surrogate mother US$200,000 to carry the child. In Singapore, IVF is reserved for married couples, and surrogacy is “not condoned,” according to Straits Times.

District Judge Shobha Nair turned down the adoption bid—filed on the grounds of the welfare of the child—because the biological father should have been “acutely aware” that the procedures used to conceive the child would not have been allowed in Singapore.

Straits Times quoted her as saying, “He cannot then come to the courts of the very same jurisdiction to have the acts condoned.”

Judge Nair pointed out that the child would “continue to be in the care” of the biological father, and that the possibility of Singaporean citizenship would be explored at a later date. The child currently holds American citizenship.