A widow is battling to use sperm taken from the body of her dead husband, in a British legal first. The woman, who cannot be named, wants to use sperm taken from her husband after he died unexpectedly during a routine hospital operation last year. The mother-of-one applied for an emergency court order allowing his sperm to be taken shortly after he died and it is now being stored in a clinic. The law allows sperm only to be used with the written consent of the donor.
This article examines the new Model Act on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART), which was approved by the American Bar Association in February, 2008.
This proposed Model Act is the work of the American Bar Association Section of Family Law's Committee on Reproductive and Genetic Technology. It has been approved by the Section Council. The sections dealing with parentage are intended, as much as possible, to be consistent with and to track the corresponding provisions of the Uniform Parentage Act of 2000, as amended in 2002.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 was granted Royal Assent in the UK on 18 November 2008. This article will look at two specific areas addressed in the new Act and ask what the human rights issues were under the old law and whether the changes adequately address these issues. By looking at case law under the European Convention on Human Rights, the article will attempt to evaluate whether either the old law or the new law can be considered compatible with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
A white couple undergoing IVF treatment have had black twins after a blunder at a fertility clinic. It has sparked an unprecedented legal debate over how it could happen and who the 'lawful' parents are. BBC News Online asked Penney Lewis, a lecturer in law at King's College London, about issues surrounding the case.
A couple have spoken of their utter devastation after a fertility clinic mix-up led to their last viable embryo being implanted into another woman. Debra and Paul, from Bridgend, have received damages of about £25,000 after the error in December 2007.