News and Blog - Page 5

Filter by category

23
Jan
2025

Posthumous Conception In Focus

The law governing posthumous conception in England and Wales sets out clear legal requirements designed to protect an individual's right to consent to the use of their eggs, sperm or embryos in treatment after their death. Eggs, sperm and embryos represent a special class of reproductive cells. They are very private and intimate, representing unique reproductive building blocks in human conception and an individual's genetic legacy. As such, the law is designed to prevent the unauthorised use of a person's gametes (or embryos comprising these) in treatment without their specific consent in life and after death. However, the prescriptive legal framework governing posthumous conception is not without its challenges in real life. What can be done to overcome these challenges?

23
Dec
2024

Secret Sperm Donation & The Early Years of UK IVF

An article in The Telegraph (1) on 20 December 2024 has reported concerns by two individuals about early UK fertility clinic practices, having recently discovered that they share the same secret sperm donor; a scientist in charge of the laboratory in the 1970's on the floor above UK IVF pioneer Patrick Steptoe's clinic at Oldham Hospital. Fifty years on, this has come to light after both individuals registered for DNA tests on Ancestry.com, reportedly raising concerns about whether their mothers were unknowingly impregnated without their consent with donor sperm.

25
Nov
2024

The Future of Womb Transplants

On 20 November 2024, Louisa Ghevaert attended a Progress Educational Trust event "10 Years of Womb Transplants: What Have We learned? What Does the Future Hold?". This fascinating event looked at the important and pioneering uterine transplant work that has been undertaken over the last 10 years, starting with the world's first successful human womb transplant and live birth in September 2014. Since then, there have been more than 135 uterus transplants around the world, including news of the UK's first womb transplant in 2023. In doing so, uterus transplants offer hope and greater reproductive choice for women whilst raising complex medical, legal and ethical issues.

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.

In the News

X updates

Follow Louisa on X for latest industry updates

Articles & Publications

The latest news on fertility and modern family law

News & Commentary

Louisa discusses her opinion on different topics