Family Law & Fertility Law Blog | Louisa Ghevaert Associates

UK storage limit for frozen eggs, sperm and embryos extended due to Covid-19 pandemic

On 27 April 2020 the Department of Health and Social Care announced that due to the potential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on fertility patients, the current 10-year storage limit for embryos and gametes will be extended by two years. This follows the decision to temporarily suspend fertility treatment services in the UK on 15 April 2020 and aims to provide sufficient time for fertility treatment to resume.

A legal watershed: UK Supreme Court awards commercial surrogacy damages

BioNews have published a comment piece by specialist fertility and surrogacy lawyer Louisa Ghevaert on the landmark legal ruling by the UK Supreme Court to award damages for commercial surrogacy. This important judgment helps improve fertility and family building options for victims of medical negligence. It marks a distinct change in UK public policy.

Surrogacy during the Covid-19 pandemic

The global Covid-19 pandemic has drastically changed life as we know it and caused massive disruption. Global travel restrictions are creating all manner of logistical difficulties for intended parents, surrogates and surrogate born children. The halt of fertility treatment and wider uncertainty brought about by the virus creates many legal and wider issues too for those embarking on, or part way, through a surrogacy arrangement.

Fertility Treatment during the Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 crisis has brought about catastrophic disruption and change to all aspects of life. It has hit fertility treatment patients and the fertility sector particularly hard. On 18 March 2020, The British Fertility Society issued guidance for the care of fertility patients during the Covid-19 pandemic. It suspends fertility treatment services at UK fertility clinics, save for urgent fertility preservation cases.

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