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 the United States will need to know how their child’s birth certificate should be recorded and what additional documentation and procedures will be needed to establish their child’s citizenship in their home countries. The rapid increase in families created through assisted reproductive technology (ART) over the past decades, as well as other societal changes such as the legalization of same-sex marriage, have created a domino effect for state, local and national governments charged with amending outdated parentage and citizenship laws.  

I am honored to speak later this afternoon at the annual NAPHSIS Identity & Security Conference November 15 and 16, 2018, in Washington, D.C., as part of a panel called “You Need HOW Many Different Identity Documents?!” I will join fellow panelist Bruce Hale of Modern Family Law, with Mariah Porkorny of the South Dakota Department of Health moderating.

In establishing my own fertility law practice, and in mentoring other attorneys entering the field of ART law, I have always advocated for reaching out to and cooperating with vital records departments to develop humane and practical procedures that benefit families. As a non-profit organization representing all 57 vital records jurisdictions in the United States and U.S. territories, NAPHSIS (National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems) offers a unique opportunity to foster this cooperation. Visit www.naphsis.org for more information about this important organization.