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04
Nov
2024

Newborn Genome Sequencing At Birth: The Generation Study Progress Update

Louisa was pleased to attend Progress Educational Trust's event "Whole Genome Sequencing at Birth: Implementing The Generation Study" on 23 October 2024. This event provided a progress update on The Generation Study, which is an NHS embedded research study undertaking whole genome sequencing of 100,000 newborn babies at different hospitals across England. The Generation Study's aim is to better inform future decisions about using whole genome sequencing to support newborn screening and understand whether this can improve our ability to diagnose and accelerate access to treatment for rare genetic conditions.

29
Oct
2024

BBC News: DNA Testing and the Law, ‘I could have lost my child’ after flawed DNA test

Louisa Ghevaert was interviewed on 8 BBC Radio Stations on 23 October 2024 discussing issues and legalities associated with prenatal DNA testing and other forms of DNA testing. This followed news of a woman who received flawed DNA test results identifying the wrong man as her unborn baby's father, resulting in a lengthy legal dispute over custody of her child. The woman was reportedly one of dozens of women who received unreliable DNA test results from a Canadian laboratory which advertised online.

30
Sep
2024

Posthumous Conception & Surrogacy: The Importance of Consent

The case of Re G v Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority & Anor [2024] EWHC 2453 (Fam) raises important legal and factual issues about posthumous conception that have not previously been considered by the English Court. This case, in which Louisa Ghevaert Associates was instructed by the applicant mother, concerned the storage and use of a young woman's eggs, who tragically died in June 2023 within six months of receiving a breast cancer diagnosis. The mother sought permission to use her deceased daughter's 20 frozen eggs to have a baby through surrogacy.

20
Sep
2024

British Fertility Society’s Creating Modern Families Day 2024

Louisa Ghevaert was delighted to to deliver a surrogacy law update on 17 September 2024 at the British Fertility Society’s Creating Modern Families Day 2024 in London as part of the annual BFS Study Week. This training day was well attended by fertility clinicians, embryologists, nurses and other professionals. It also included a lively legal Question & Answer session, during which Louisa was pleased to answer a range of questions about legal parentage, donor conception and fertility treatment law, family building trends, complex personal situations and more.

15
Sep
2024

The Mail On Sunday: More Single Men and Men Over 50 and 60 Are Applying For Children Through Surrogacy

Louisa Ghevaert featured in an article in the Mail On Sunday on 15 September 2024 by Sanchez Manning about the numbers of single men and men over 50 and 60 applying to have children through surrogacy. Almost 300 men aged over 50 in England applied to become the legal father of a surrogate born child over the past five years (43 of whom are aged over 60).

13
Sep
2024

The Surrogacy Network: A Journey To Parenthood

Louisa Ghevaert was pleased to attend The Surrogacy Network at Cloth Street, London, on 12 September 2024 to promote best practice and network with colleagues and professionals across the fertility sector. This Surrogacy Network event provided personal insight from a recently successful UK surrogacy journey. It served as an important reminder of the importance of care, attention to detail, consideration and proactive management of every angle of the surrogacy process.

05
Sep
2024

BioNews’ 25th Birthday Celebration

Louisa Ghevaert was pleased to attend BioNews' 25th Birthday Celebration on 4 September 2024 at the Conway Hall in Red Lion Square, Holborn, London. This invitation-only event was well attended by a community of leading experts and supporters from across the fertility, medical, scientific and academic sectors. This special event included speeches looking at which developments in fertility, genomics and embryo research will have the greatest impact over the next twenty five years, as well as the presentation of the inaugural Marcus Pembrey BioNews Writing Prize.

02
Sep
2024

Donor Conception Law: Calls for Global Limits For Egg And Sperm Donors

There are growing calls across the scientific and fertility sectors for global limits for egg and sperm donors. This is being fuelled by media and television coverage of prolific sperm donors as seen in Netflix's recent documentary series "The Man with 1,000 Kids" (released in July 2024) and concerns about the wellbeing of donor conceived individuals. Whilst there is a 10-family legal limit for egg and sperm donors who donate at UK licensed fertility clinics, there are currently no limits on how many times they can donate abroad since there are no international restrictions.

19
Aug
2024

Rise in DNA tests being used to claim citizenship of other countries

Louisa Ghevaert was pleased to feature in an article in The Guardian on 18 August 2024 about the legalities associated with DNA testing and applications to rectify an inaccurate or incomplete birth certificate. The article discusses how increasing numbers of people are taking DNA tests to explore their ancestral heritage, uncover unknown aspects of their personal identity or trace parents, siblings and new relatives. Added to this, people are now using DNA tests to apply for citizenship in another country.

28
Jul
2024

Netflix’s The Man With 1,000 Kids: Part One

Netflix's documentary series "The Man with 1,000 Kids" was released in the UK in July 2024. It takes an in-depth look at the actions of a prolific Dutch sperm donor, called Jonathan, who allegedly may have fathered over 1,000 children. Episode one starts with personal accounts from women and couples who conceived their children privately with Jonathan's sperm and their shock, anger and concern when they began to learn about the alleged scale of his sperm donation activity. It opens with the question "What kind of man would do that?" and goes on to raise further serious issues and questions.

12
Jul
2024

Can Air Pollution Affect My Fertility?

A groundbreaking study presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology's (ESHRE) 40th Annual Meeting in Amsterdam (7-10 July 2024) shows that exposure to air pollution can significantly decrease the chance of a live birth after IVF treatment by 38 percent. It found that air pollution's negative impact on fertility starts before conception by disrupting egg development and quality. This adds to previous findings that microscopic soot particles travel through the bloodstream into the ovaries and placenta leading to increased miscarriage rates and premature births.

21
Jun
2024

Resolution’s Modern Families Forum 2024

Louisa Ghevaert attended Resolution's Modern Families Forum 2024 on 20 June 2024 and had the privilege of meeting Baroness Brenda Hale of Richmond DBE and listening to her keynote address on the legal recognition of “family” from the 1960s to the present day. Lady Hale successfully broke through the glass ceiling and was the first woman President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom from 2017 until her retirement in 2020. In meeting Lady Hale, Louisa was privileged to discuss her legal involvement and the transformational outcome of Whittington Hospital NHS Trust v XX [2020] UKSC 14, which was Lady Hale's last case in the Supreme Court and enabled the recovery of damages for fertility treatment, donor conception and surrogacy following medical negligence.

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