MK Family Law

The Hague Conference on Private International Law organized a meeting of an Experts Group to discuss the feasibility of a future instrument on the issues of parentage and surrogacy.  This group met from February 15-17, 2021 online.  You can view its report here .  The group concluded it is ready to prepare a final report to the Council on a possible future legal instrument that will outline private international law rules on parentage due to surrogacy.  But, the group concluded that it was difficult to have meaningful discussions virtually, so it will wait until 2022 so that members can travel to meet in-person to prepare a final report.  Therefore, the current goal is to prepare a final report to submit to the Council for its 2023 meeting (usually held in March each year).  

In this post, I am returning to April 2, 2020, where a Massachusetts court, in the Adoption of Daphne , vacated a trial court's order dismissing a petition to adopt a minor child born in Massachusetts to a gestational surrogate.   The child was the product of in-vitro fertilization.  The genetic father of the child and his partner entered into a gestational carrier agreement with the surrogate in Massachusetts.  The two men selected an egg from a donor, fertilized it with the sperm of the genetic father and implanted it into the surrogate who carried the child to term in Massachusetts.  The child's birth certificate lists the genetic father and the birth Mother (surrogate) as parents, and the two intended to proceed with a post-birth adoption to terminate the mother's rights, and establish the genetic father as the sole parent.   In April 2018, the mother signed the "surrender form" under Massachusetts law.  The father, his partner, and the child ...

 From Guest Blogger, Bruce Hale of Modern Family Law     The family law bar is facing a number of challenges posed by the global pandemic.  Much has already been written on the impact of the pandemic to matters of child custody and support.  Lesser known are issues in family formation, which are aggravated when they take place on the international stage. Many countries around the world restrict or ban certain forms of assisted procreation.  In most countries, surrogacy is banned outright or only available in very limited circumstances.  Gamete donation in many countries can also be subject to strict limitations.  Even fertility procedures, such as IVF, might not be available to all who seek to become parents. Because of these limitations in other countries, the United States is a destination for people who need fertility treatment or third-party assisted procreation.  In the United States, individuals and couples enjoy a generally broader set...