8 April 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.
Fertility and surrogacy law expert Louisa Ghevaert will provide a surrogacy law update. Her session will look at recent trends in family building and surrogacy law, policy and practice. It will address The Law Commissions of England and Wales and The Scottish Law Commissions’ proposals for surrogacy law reform in the UK in anticipation of their Final Report and draft legislation due for publication in Autumn 2022. It will look at the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and current economic challenges on assisted reproduction and surrogacy. Furthermore, it will cover recent surrogacy law rulings in the English Family Court.
The Creating Modern Families Day 2022 module will provide a varied programme encompassing important and complex issues including: fertility and gender reassignment, the role of counselling in contemporary family creation, legal aspects of surrogacy, the fertility patient perspective, treating single women and same-sex couples, cross-border fertility care, regulation and legal aspects of using donor gametes, the changing face of the modern family and moving on from fertility treatment to adoption.
Dr Alka Prakash, Consultant and Clinical Lead in Reproductive Medicine at that IVF unit at Cambridge Hospitals NHS Trust leads the British Fertility Society’s Creating Modern Families Module 2022. She has worked on research on recurrent miscarriage and implantation failure for many years. She is also a BFS accredited trainer for the various training modules.
Dr Vasanti Jadva is a Principal Research Associate at the Centre for Family Research and an affiliated lecturer at the Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge. Her session will look at the changing face of the family. This will draw from her research on the psychological well-being of parents and children in families created by IVF, egg donation, sperm donation and surrogacy and experiences of surrogates and gamete donors.
Rachel Cutting, Director of Compliance and Information at the HFEA, will deliver a session on cross-border fertility care. James Lawford-Davies, a regulatory lawyer and litigator in Hill Dickinson’s life sciences team, will deliver a session looking at the regulation and legal aspects of conception with donor gametes.
Jane Stewart is a Consultant in Reproductive Medicine at Newcastle Fertility Centre at LIFE, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Her session will look at clinical, ethical and legal aspects associated with donation and sharing of eggs and embryos. Jan Grace, Consultant Gynaecologist at Assisted Conception Units, Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital, London, will deliver a session addressing clinical management of surrogacy.
Suzanne Dark, Senior Fertility Counsellor at Jessop Fertility Clinic will address the role of counselling in the creation of modern families through donation and surrogacy. She is a Senior Accredited Member of the British Infertility Counselling Association, involved nationally with fertility counsellor training and a member of BICA’s executive committee.
Dr James Barrett, Lead Clinician at Charing Cross Gender Identity Clinic and President of the British Association of Gender Identity Specialists, will look at gender dysphoria and fertility treatment. Anya Sizer, regional co-ordinator for Fertility Network UK will deliver a session looking at moving on from fertility treatment to adoption.
For more information about the British Fertility Society’s Virtual Study Week 2022 and its creating Modern Families Day module click here. Virtual Study Week 2022 will be accessible from 23 June 2022 to 30 December 2022.
Need a surrogacy lawyer or a fertility lawyer? If you would like to discuss your situation or you require specialist fertility, surrogacy, donor conception and family law advice and assistance please contact Louisa Ghevaert by email louisa@louisaghevaertassociates.co.uk or by telephone +44 (0)20 7965 8399.
