This past week, I attended a conference on the state of Assisted Reproductive Technology – “A Global Approach to Family Formation” brought together nearly 1000 of my colleagues for an intense three days and made me realize that, no matter where in the world we practice ART law, we are all addressing the same issues, and all looking for creative ways to find legal solutions for our clients.
Sponsored by the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and the American Academy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys, some of the highlights of the conference included LGBT family formation, estate planning in ART, egg banking – the legal and ethical considerations, The Hague and immigration, psychological issues of egg freezing and banking, divorce and ART, and confounding issues in international ART.
Conference Highlights
The section on LGBT family formation explored many topics on the legal challenges for LGBT families, including the new changes in the DOMA statutes and the laws affecting same-sex marriage and parentage in every state and country.
For estate planning and ART, the unique issues included how stored or frozen gametes and genetic material may affect your estate planning, powers of attorney and surrogacy arrangements in the event of the death of an intended parent or surrogate during the surrogacy process. One thing I found particularly interesting was that parties included in any stored or frozen gametes arrangement need to take a closer view of any contracts being signed through clinics or agencies providing such services since they can directly impact any estate planning or surrogacy arrangements, as well as divorce and separation, with regard to the intent of the parties as to the division and distribution of such stored or frozen genetic material.
Egg banking was also addressed with regard to the changing landscape of egg donation in recent years and advising donors, recipients and egg banking programs and fertility centers as to the ethical dilemmas that may come into play with regard to egg donation. It was fascinating to hear how the ability to freeze eggs for fertility preservation and banking has changed the focus of psychological evaluations and counseling of potential donor registry.
For issues to consider during divorce, much consideration was given to IP’s divorcing during a surrogacy pregnancy and strategies for preventing disputes and implications of divorce, as well as dealing with divorcing surrogates, disputed embryo disposition, and addressing divorce in contracts involving divorce if encountered in the ART process.
Immigration attorneys provided red flags and provided solutions to common problems faced by international ART and immigration attorneys. They also provided an in-depth review of possible Hague revisions that implicate ART in understanding the process in advising individuals on how The Hague could impact international ART and adoption arrangements.
The common theme throughout the entire conference is that ART and adoption are an increasing area of legal practice since the law is now trying to catch up with ART technology and issues related to ART are prevalent not only in all of the United States but also internationally as well. However, due to the advancement in technology and the understanding by ART attorneys in this area, ART attorneys, as well as individuals involved in ART procedures in the States, as well as internationally, now have options in how they may maneuver the legal aspects of their ART family formation since attorneys all over the world are now addressing these concerns, as well as actively engaging in solutions to any ART issues faced throughout the country and internationally.
While it is clear the law is still not up to date with the technology now available to would-be parents, it is equally clear that things are moving forward at lightning speed, and now more than ever, there are endless reasons to hope.
heARTbeat is a publication of the KingSpry Adoption/ART Law Practice Group. It is meant to be informational and does not constitute legal advice.
