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18
May
2022

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.

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.

11
May
2022

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.

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.

03
Feb
2022

International surrogacy law: legal parentage, citizenship, time limits and parental orders

The recent case of Re X, Y and Z (Children: Parental Orders: Time Limit) [2022] highlights the very real legal issues and problems that can arise when intended parents enter into international surrogacy arrangements. In Re X, the intended parents experienced unforeseen difficulties with their three US surrogate born children’s legal parentage, citizenship and residence when they encountered a different system of law in Denmark where they were living. They also had to navigate complex legal issues whilst applying for parental orders in the English Family Court to resolve their children’s legal parentage and legally secure their children’s care arrangements upon relocating to the UK.

17
Jan
2022

Egg and Sperm Donation: Identity Issues, Anonymity, Disputes and the Law

Over the last two decades we have seen growing uptake of egg and sperm donation. Advances in reproductive technology, evolving social attitudes, changes in the law and the internet have expanded our reproductive options and approaches to family building. However, mismatched expectations, gaps in legal understanding, lack of ground rules, poor communication and changes in personal situations and relationships can create unwanted tension and disputes following egg and sperm donation.

12
Jan
2022

Fertility Law, Family Building and Modern Family Relationships in 2022

The start of 2022 brings new opportunity to revisit future family building plans and re-imagine family relationships. Family creation and the achievement of a happy and stable family life remains a central goal for many people. However, modern expectations about family building and family life continue to challenge and outpace legal frameworks. This can create legal parentage gaps, problems with birth certificates and a lack of legal parental responsibility powers for parents with which to safeguard their children’s upbringing.

30
Nov
2021

Declaration of Parentage: resolving family ancestry, questions about parentage and birth certificates

Millions of people around the world are embracing direct-to-consumer DNA tests to explore personal ancestry and resolve issues about genetic identity, parentage and status. They can create complex issues about biological and legal parentage as increasing numbers of people seek to resolve their parentage under English law and rectify birth certificates. This is in turn bringing into focus the significance of applications for Declarations of Parentage in the English Family Court.

08
Nov
2021

The Mail On Sunday: Surrogacy and Later-Life Parenthood in the UK

Louisa Ghevaert features in The Mail on Sunday (7 November 2021) about parents undertaking surrogacy later in life and trends in later-life parenthood. The article looks at the ages of those embarking on parenthood today and whether there are age limits for those building families through surrogacy.

29
Oct
2021

The Future of The Family Justice System: Remote Court Hearings

Sir Andrew McFarlane, President of the Family Division, delivered a speech on 16 October 2021 addressing the future of the Family Justice System in England and Wales as we continue to navigate through the Covid-19 pandemic. In doing so, he looked at the future mechanics of court hearings in the Family Division, well-being of all those who work in the Family Court and the Court of Protection and the future of digital reform.

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