First Person

by Richard B. Vaughn, Esq., National Fertility Law Center, May 4, 2010

As consumers of fertility medical, legal and information services, you may already know that there is not a lot of legislation or regulation in this area of reproductive rights. However, in recent months there has been an unusually large number of legislative proposals across the country relating to assisted reproduction which could eventually have dramatic consequences for your assisted reproduction journey.

Here’s a short summary of many of these proposals.

by Stephanie Goldman-Levich, April 14, 2010

I started Family Creations -- an international egg donor program that helps match intended parents with egg donors -- with the firm belief that families can come in all shapes and sizes, that they can be created in any number of ways, that the way it usually works isn’t always the way it has to. I believe it’s love -- not blood -- that makes a family, a belief that is very personal to me and my story. Because 28 years ago, I was adopted.

by Melissa B. Brisman, Esq.

This month’s legal update begins with two exciting court cases addressing the rights of homosexual parents. In the first case, M.A.T. v. G.S.T., the Pennsylvania Superior Court overturned 25 years of legal precedent requiring a same-sex parent in a custody dispute to prove that his or her sexual preference does not harm the child. The second case, which was ultimately heard by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, involved a dispute between same-sex male adoptive parents and the Louisiana Registrar which refused to honor the same-sex couple’s New York adoption order and would not amend a birth certificate to recognize them as legal parents. The final item in this month’s legal update involves a bill passed by the Oklahoma House, and in consideration by the Oklahoma Senate, which would prohibit women from receiving compensation for acting as egg donors in that state.