Category: Modern Family Law - Page 17

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16
May
2022

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.

29
Apr
2022

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.

08
Apr
2022

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.

31
Mar
2022

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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