03 Apr 2020 COVID-19: Report from IFLG’s Beijing Office
Our Beijing-based IFLG team member, paralegal Peiya Wang, put together this fascinating report of how the COVID-19 epidemic has progressed in China, measures implemented to slow its spread, and how the population there is coping with the unexpected disruption to daily life....
03 Apr 2020 ART Attorneys Urge Emergency Action on Newborn Passports During COVID-18 Crisis
Among the many challenges intended parents are facing during the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is the difficulty in obtaining newborn passports enabling them to take their babies born via surrogacy in the United States back to their home countries. In a still developing story, assisted reproduction attorneys...
27 Mar 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic Forces Intended Parents to Delay Surrogacy
Yesterday I participated in the second weekly national webinar for surrogacy professionals, convened by the American Bar Association and SEEDS (Society for Ethics in Egg Donation and Surrogacy). The webinars have been a great forum for fertility lawyers, reproductive healthcare providers, surrogacy and donor agencies...
22 Mar 2020 ART Professionals Share Info for Surrogates, Intended Parents Navigating COVID-19
I was honored to participate recently in a national surrogacy professionals COVID-19 webinar designed to share information and best practices to help surrogates and intended parents plan and cop during the crisis. ...
10 Feb 2020 Surrogacy Education Down Under Kicks Off IFLG's 2020 Travel Plans
I was excited and honored to have the opportunity to speak on U.S. surrogacy laws at two Growing Family conferences on February 8 in Sydney and on February 9 in Melbourne, Australia. Both full-day conferences were parent-curated surrogacy education events designed to provide potential intended...
09 Oct 2019 France Recognizes Intended Parents After 19 Years of Litigation
After 19 years of court battles and legal ups and downs, the French Court of Final Appeal has recognized Sylvie and Dominique Mennesson as the legal parents of their twin daughters, born via surrogacy in California in 2000. The court issued its decision recognizing the Mennessons’...
03 Oct 2019 Slow-Moving Irish ART Law Reform Would Severely Limit Surrogacy
Ireland, the traditionally Catholic country where surrogacy has existed for decades in a legal limbo, with no laws on the books, is slow-walking a badly needed overhaul of its reproductive technology laws. With the Irish legislature, the Oireachtas, at odds over historically divisive issues such...
02 Aug 2019 Children Born Abroad Via Surrogacy Denied U.S. Citizenship
The conflict and division surrounding immigration in the United States have spread beyond border crossings and asylum claims. Based on a narrow interpretation of existing law, U.S. authorities have not only denied citizenship to the children of married U.S. citizens, they are applying the law...
12 Jul 2019 International Conference Addresses Human Rights of Children Born via Foreign Surrogacy
I had the great honor recently to represent the American Bar Association and its Assisted Reproduction Technology Committee at the first International Surrogacy Conference, hosted last month by Cambridge University’s Selwyn College, the American Bar Association Section of Family Law, and the International Academy of...
25 Jun 2019 Commission Takes First Steps Toward Ending UK Surrogacy Ban
Great news out of the UK! The UK Law Commission—the body that reviews outdated laws and recommends revisions to the UK government—has made provisional recommendations for reforming the United Kingdom’s surrogacy and parentage/citizenship regulations to better protect the rights of families created via assisted reproductive...
12 Jun 2019 Italy Backtracks on Recognition of Twins' Non-Biological Dad
For more than two years, we’ve been following the case of two Italian dads, a gay couple, who became parents of twin boys via egg donation and surrogacy in Canada, a Canadian birth certificate listing both dads as legal fathers in hand. After years of legal...
25 Feb 2019 Vogue Cites California Dominance in Reproductive Technology
Vogue's March 2019 issue spotlighting California as the "center of everything" includes the article, "Fertile Ground," in which writer Jancee Dunn explores the state's role as a fount of advancements in assisted reproductive technology. As I discussed with the writer, the advantage probably dates back...
28 Dec 2018 The State of ART 2019
As we prepare to welcome a new year, several recent events point to growing worldwide acceptance of, access to and affordability of assisted reproductive technology. The government of Ireland will, for the first time in history, allocate €1 million in 2019 to provide assisted reproductive services...
18 Nov 2018 Surrogacy Bans Coming Down in Netherlands, Michigan, New York
Colleagues in Netherlands celebrated this week the news that at least two Dutch IVF clinics plan to open their doors in 2019 to same-sex couples who want to become parents via surrogacy without the difficulty and expense of traveling abroad to do so. The news, first...
15 Nov 2018 NAPHSIS Identity Documents Panel Informs Vital Records Agencies, ART Attorneys
The identity documents required to establish parentage in California, where your baby was born via egg donation and surrogacy, may be different than what you will need if you move to Alabama or New York. Likewise, parents who travel from other countries for surrogacy in...
25 Jul 2018 Israeli Government Continues Surrogacy Ban for Gay Dads
Tens of thousands of LGBT Israelis and their allies took to the streets Sunday, protesting a new Israeli surrogacy law that denies gay men the right to become parents via surrogacy, even as it gives the green light to lesbian intended parents and single women. Israeli...
02 Feb 2018 Berlin ‘Fertility Days’ Signals Groundswell of Interest in Assisted Reproduction
We at International Fertility Law Group are proud, in partnership with Oregon Reproductive Medicine, to officially represent the United States in the field of fertility law at the second annual Kinderwunsch Tage, or Fertility Days, February 17 and 18, in Berlin. The event is designed for...
19 Jul 2017 French Court Creates Parentage Path in Foreign Surrogacy
A July 5 ruling by the French supreme court, or Cour de cassation, has brought some clarity but not necessarily made things any easier for French intended parents seeking French recognition of their parental authority for children born via surrogacy. Surrogacy has been illegal in...
20 Jun 2017 Asia Trip Reminds of Continued Relevance of LGBT Pride Month
As an attorney with a busy practice, a husband and a father of two boys, my days usually fly by juggling responsibilities and deadlines, and there isn’t much time for reflection. But every now and then, the stars align and events coincide, and it almost...
22 May 2017 Cambodia Offers Vietnam Exit Plan for Families Stranded by Surrogacy Ban
The Cambodian government finally took action last month to resolve a legal quandary that trapped dozens of foreign couples and their unborn or newborn children in the country following its ban on commercial surrogacy in October 2016. The Cambodian government’s plan will provide a limited time...