Family Law & Fertility Law Blog | Louisa Ghevaert Associates

Building Families Through Surrogacy: Law Reform

On 29 March 2023, the Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission published their long awaited final recommendations to reform surrogacy law in the UK, together with draft legislation. In doing so, they recommend a new system to govern surrogacy and improve surrogacy law in the UK for children, surrogates and intended parents. The UK Government must now review and consider whether to implement these recommendations.

The Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing

Louisa Ghevaert attended the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing held at the Francis Crick Institute in London from 6 - 8 March 2023. The Summit was arranged by the UK Royal Society, UK Academy of Medical Sciences, US National Academies of Sciences and Medicine and the World Academy of Sciences. Its aim was to address the progress, benefits and challenges in research, regulation and equitable development of human genome editing technologies and therapies.

Declaration of Parentage Applications: The Significance of Legal and Biological Parenthood

The Family Court has heard a number of applications for a Declaration of Parentage recently. In November 2022, it determined an application by Amy Boudewijn for a Declaration that the late Errol Washington Johnson was her biological father. In February 2022, the Family Court also heard an application for a Declaration of Parentage where the status of legal parenthood was in doubt due to administrative errors made by clinic staff during fertility treatment.

UK Adoption Order granted to a single non-biological mother for a child born through a Californian surrogacy arrangement

The recent family law case of J v K (Adoption) [2021] EWFC 115 determined the legal parentage of a single non-biological mother for a child born through a Californian surrogacy arrangement. The legal proceedings concerned an application by a solo mother (Ms J) for an adoption order under English law for her US born surrogate child.

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