News and Blog - Page 15

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24
Aug
2020

Ovarian rejuvenation: another option for a successful pregnancy?

An experimental technique known as platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has recently attracted headlines as a potential fertility treatment to delay or even overcome the menopause and help women get pregnant. This follows results of a small pilot study conducted at the Genesis Athens Fertility Clinic in Greece from 2017 to 2019. However, large scale trials are required to gain more understanding about this technique.

21
Aug
2020

The global legal identity gap

In recent years legal identity has become an important and evolving issue in international policy circles. A legal identity helps ensure a child has access to justice and legal protections. However, legal identity is not defined in international law and this coupled with conflicting and discriminatory laws around the world, poverty and civil disruption results in a global legal identity gap. As such, there is growing understanding that more needs to be done and that legal identity extends beyond existing frameworks based on biology, legal parentage and ties with family and private life.

18
Aug
2020

Saving and storing your baby’s cord blood and tissue: is this a growing trend?

There is increasing uptake of cord blood and tissue banking in the UK. This is due to medical advances, growing awareness and rising numbers of parents who see this as having the potential to invest in their child’s long term health and provide a form of ‘biological insurance’.

14
Aug
2020

International surrogacy law reform: is this achievable?

The Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) is currently looking at the problem of ‘limping legal parentage’ in respect of children internationally, particularly in cases arising from cross-border surrogacy arrangements. Growing demand for surrogacy around the world and a lack of international harmonisation of surrogacy law and policy continues to affect the recognition of surrogate born children’s legal parentage.

12
Aug
2020

Legal aspects of known donor arrangements

There are a wide range of reasons why people to choose to become a known donor or conceive a child through known donation. Friendship, altruism, biological legacy, family narrative, personal situations and previous experiences can be important factors. A known donor arrangement creates a number of complex legal issues, implications and outcomes depending on the method of conception and wider circumstances.

10
Aug
2020

The IVF postcode lottery and law reform

Articles in the Sunday Times and Daily Mail yesterday (9 August 2020) report that fertility treatment policies on the NHS differ from region to region creating an IVF postcode lottery based on relationship status. They report that in some areas of England IVF patients are prevented from obtaining fertility treatment on the NHS unless they can prove they are in a 'stable' relationship. To make matters worse, CCGs define stability differently and this is creating confusion, frustration and distress.

31
Jul
2020

Later life parenthood: a fertility and family law perspective

Latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that the number of women over 40 giving birth has risen to record levels in England and Wales. In contrast, fewer than one in 10 women aged between 25 and 30 had a baby last year. This growing trend in later life parenthood is driven by a number of factors and it is likely to intensify as a result of the continued global Covid-19 pandemic. It brings with it a range of complex legal, medical and wider issues.

28
Jul
2020

Direct to consumer genetic testing: a family and fertility law perspective

A decision to undertake a direct to consumer genetic test is a big step. In addition to offering insight into an individual’s health and disease risk, it can help trace a biological parent and biological relatives. In doing so, it can raise complex and challenging legal and wider issues about paternity and maternity, infidelity, the nature of family relationships, birth certificates, financial and inheritance claims and citizenship and nationality.

17
Jul
2020

Why we need fertility and wider law reform part III

There is increasingly a need to implement intelligent fertility and wider law reform and develop new policies and practices. The world around us is changing at pace and we must adapt to a range of powerful and inter-connected factors: declining fertility levels, fallout from the Covid-19 global pandemic, changing geopolitics, intensification of genomic, digital and AI technology revolutions.

13
Jul
2020

The importance of legal parentage

The significance of legal parentage should not be underestimated. Legal parentage establishes a legal parent-child relationship in law and it confers status, as well as various important legal rights and responsibilities. It does not always follow biological parentage or birth registration. Furthermore, the law can be complex, particularly in cases involving assisted conception and modern family forms, and challenging to resolve when disputes arise.

08
Jul
2020

UK fertility treatment trends: what’s next?

The HFEA’s latest data, published on 30 June 2020, paints a largely positive picture of fertility treatment in the UK in 2018 before the Covid-19 pandemic. Its main points and analysis indicate that IVF birth rates had increased for patients under 43 years and that on average, about one in every four embryos transferred in 2018 resulted in a live birth. However, the massive disruption, uncertainty and loss caused by the advent of the global Covid-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed our public and private lives.

01
Jul
2020

Should I freeze my eggs or embryos?

On 30 June 2020, the HFEA published its latest report entitled “Fertility treatment 2018: trends and figures”. It shows that since 2013, the number of egg and embryo freezing cycles in the UK has increased fivefold. In 2013, just 1,500 freezing cycles were undertaken. In contrast, this increased by 523% to just under 9,000 freezing cycles in 2018. However, freezing gametes (eggs and sperm) and embryos and undergoing fertility treatment is not a panacea. It creates a wide range of legal and practical issues that need to be navigated carefully.

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