Intra‑Family Egg and Sperm Donation Law

Intra-family egg and sperm donation can bring about a child with a genetic and familial connection when it is not possible to use a prospective parent’s own eggs or sperm. Intra-family egg and sperm donations can occur for different reasons and take a variety of different forms including:

• A donation of eggs from a mother to a daughter following a diagnosis of Turner’s Syndrome (causing underdeveloped ovaries and infertility).
• A donation of eggs or sperm to a sibling following cancer diagnosis and treatment.
• A straight surrogacy arrangement whereby a genetic female relative carries a pregnancy and donates her own egg for a family member.
• A donation of eggs from a sister, aunt or cousin where there is female age-related infertility or unexplained infertility.
• A donation of sperm from a brother, uncle or male cousin where there is male infertility (e.g. sperm disorders or lack of viable sperm).

Intra-family egg and sperm donation can be preferable to using non-genetically matched donated eggs or sperm where there is a desire to achieve a genetic link and continue the family’s genetic legacy.

However, these family building arrangements can create complex legal and practical issues and challenging emotional dynamics which require careful management from the outset, including:

• To access fertility treatment for donor conception at a UK licensed fertility clinic.
• To proactively identify and manage the additional issues associated with using an intra-family donor (e.g. biological and legal identity, emotional attachment issues, family politics etc).
• To understand and proactively manage the legal issues associated with donor conception (e.g. preparation of a written known donor agreement).
• To obtain or secure legal parentage and parental responsibility for a child conceived through donor conception (e.g. a parental order, an adoption order, a parental responsibility order).
• To obtain a British birth certificate naming a parent as the legal parent of a child conceived through donor conception.
• To resolve difficulties or a dispute with a known donor during pregnancy or after birth of a child.
• To resolve a dispute or issues about the care, upbringing and legal status of a child born through donor conception (e.g. a child arrangements order, a parental responsibility order, a specific issue order or a wardship order).
• Expert donor conception law and fertility treatment law advice to support a claim for damages following medical negligence.

Need a donor conception lawyer?

Our expert donor conception law services help you identify, understand and navigate the legal issues, risks and outcomes in the short, medium and longer term.  We provide innovative donor conception law advice and solutions that align with your situation and wishes because we operate at the forefront of rapidly evolving donor conception law, policy and practice in the UK.

Our expert donor conception and fertility lawyer Louisa Ghevaert is also a co-author of medical reference book Reducing Risk in Fertility Treatment (First Edition, April 2015), contributing a specialist chapter entitled “Legal and Regulatory Risks to Patients: The UK Context” addressing legal and regulatory pitfalls faced by fertility patients seeking various forms of fertility treatment in the UK.

Louisa Ghevaert, has since 2017 been a member of the International Egg Donation Stakeholder Advisory Group led by De Montfort University concerned with the future landscape of egg donation law and policy in the UK and Europe.

From 2014 -18, Louisa Ghevaert was an expert member of the Surrogacy UK Working Party Group for Law Reform and a contributor to its seminal report on surrogacy (both straight and gestational surrogacy) and law reform in 2015. This milestone report informed parliamentary debate on surrogacy law reform and policy in The House of Lords in 2016 and subsequent work to reform surrogacy law in the UK.

Since 2008, Louisa Ghevaert has dealt with many landmark and well known donor conception law cases, including:

In 2013, Louisa Ghevaert successfully obtained a parental order for British intended parents who had a surrogate born child through egg donation (so their child had a similar racial background to the intended father who was of Chinese origin) and a Californian (USA) commercial surrogacy arrangement. This case redefined the English Court’s approach to egg donor payments and the authorisation of commercial surrogacy payments given UK public policy restrictions.

In 2014, Louisa Ghevaert represented the intended biological father in a UK straight surrogacy dispute with his wife (who was neither the birth nor genetic mother) and the surrogate (a close friend) concerning a surrogate born child’s upbringing and parentage, In JP v LP & Ors [2014] EWHC 595 (Fam).

In 2016, Louisa Ghevaert obtained a declaration of parentage in the High Court for a woman in a same-sex relationship for a child conceived through fertility treatment and sperm donation at a UK fertility clinic licensed by the HFEA.  The HFEA Consent Form WP was missing from the clinic file which called the non-birth mother’s legal parentage into question, In the matter of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Case V) [2016] EWHC 2356 (Fam).

Through 2018, 2019 and 2020, Louisa Ghevaert’s expert surrogacy, donor conception and fertility treatment law evidence in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court resulted in further legal rulings for a woman left infertile following a delay in detecting cancer in smear tests and biopsies, enabling for the first time recovery of damages of approximately £558,000 for commercial surrogacy, donor conception and fertility treatment in the US, XX v Whittington Hospital NHS Trust [2018] EWCA Civ 2832 and Whittington Hospital NHS Trust v XX [2020] UKSC 14.

Through 2021 and 2022 Louisa Ghevaert successfully acted for male intended parents and obtained parental orders for 3 surrogate born children conceived with donor eggs and one of the intended father’s sperm following complex international conflicts of law between the US (California & Oregon), Denmark and the UK concerning the children’s legal parentage, citizenship and residence arrangements in Re X,Y and Z (Children: Parental Orders: Time Limit) [2022] EWHC 198 (Fam).

You can read more about these leading donor conception law cases and Louisa Ghevaert’s specialist legal practice below.