Family Law & Fertility Law Blog | Louisa Ghevaert Associates

Expert Witness Fertility Law: Claims for IVF, Donor Conception and Surrogacy

Individual fertility is precious and fragile. It can be unexpectedly lost or impaired when problems arise during surgery or fertility treatment, pregnancy and birth as well as following delays in detecting medical issues or misdiagnosis of conditions like cancer. This can give rise to complex legal claims for costs of IVF, donor conception and surrogacy within medical negligence proceedings. Our expert witness fertility law service can provide written reports and expert evidence which identifies and assesses the relevant legal issues in individual cases and quantifies the costs of family building through assisted conception to assist claims for damages. This can help ensure future family building or family expansion and completion.

Netflix’s “Our Father”: DNA testing, paternity disputes and questions about biological and legal parentage

Netflix’s new 2022 documentary “Our Father” powerfully portrays real-life stories of those who discover through direct-to-consumer DNA testing that their biological father was a well-known fertility doctor and a secret serial sperm donor for over 30 years. The documentary is compellingly told from the perspectives of the donor conceived individuals and their families who learn that their fertility doctor secretly replaced anonymous sperm samples and couples’ own sperm samples with his own. It also shines a light on some of the legal issues and wider implications associated with at-home DNA testing, paternity disputes and emerging concepts of fertility fraud.

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.

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