Family Law & Fertility Law Blog | Louisa Ghevaert Associates

Egg Donation Law, Policy and Practice

Louisa Ghevaert was delighted to attend the EDNA study end of project webinar on 10 May 2022 “From scarcity to sisterhood: exploring the complexities of egg donation in Europe”. Louisa has been involved with this important research project exploring egg donation practices and governance since 2017 as an expert member of the international Egg Donation Stakeholder Advisory Group (EDNA) led by Professor Nicky Hudson at De Montfort University’s Centre for Reproductive Research (CRR). The EDNA study webinar on 10 May 2022 highlighted many important findings and issues including the multiple and evolving narratives around egg donation, how vitrification is contributing to the transformation of egg donation enabling new practices and business models and the different ways egg donation is regulated.

Undergoing Fertility Treatment in the Workplace and Fertility Law Reform

Undergoing fertility treatment can be a challenging exercise and it can create all sorts of practical and legal difficulties for workers. This is because the period when workers are undergoing fertility treatment (but not yet pregnant) is not adequately catered for in law. Instead, legislation giving workers’ legal rights and protections is focused around being pregnant and then having a baby. This can leave workers undergoing fertility treatment in difficult situations. As a result, fertility law reform is needed in the UK and more needs to be done to support those undergoing fertility treatment in the workplace and to improve workplace culture.

Surrogacy Law Update: British Fertility Society’s Creating Modern Families Day 2022

Louisa Ghevaert joins a panel of leading expert speakers at The British Fertility Society’s Creating Modern Families Day 2022. This is one of nine modules which forms part of The BFS’s annual training event for clinicians, fertility nurses and specialists across the fertility sector. The Creating Modern Families Day 2022 module will look at the complexities of building modern families and assisted conception, including the clinical and legal issues, regulatory changes and wider aspects associated with fertility treatment, egg and sperm donation and surrogacy.

Trends in Surrogacy Law and Family Building in 2022 in England and Wales

The latest Family Court (England and Wales) Quarterly Statistics have just been published by the Ministry of Justice for October to December 2021. They provide useful information about trends in surrogacy. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw an upwards trend in surrogacy. However, for a second year running there has now been a five percent decline in the numbers of parental orders granted compared with pre-pandemic surrogacy activity. This correlates with an overall decline in birth rates in England and Wales in 2020, whilst the total fertility rate in England and Wales also reached a record low in 2020 according to recent statistics released by The Office for National Statistics.

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