Academic

Anderson on Parentage & Assisted Reproductive Technology

By Lawrence Solum

Linda S. Anderson (Stetson University College of Law) has posted Adding Players to the Game: Parentage Determinations When Assisted Reproductive Technology is Used to Create Families (Arkansas Law Review, Vol. 62, No. 1, p. 29, 2009) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Though some forms of assisted reproduction (ART) have been available for a long time, more recent scientific advances in reproductive technology created opportunities for more people to build families, but consequently caused confusion about who should be considered a parent. In addition, changing family relationships have caused questions about who should be considered a parent.

This article attempts to compare the way various courts identify the legal parents of a child born through assisted reproductive technology. After updating existing discussions about the way parentage decisions are made in ART situations the article provides additional support for creating a predictable and consistent approach to situations that scientific advances force courts and legislatures to address.

With little statutory guidance and constrained by individual and varying state law and public policy, courts have attempted to fashion results while generally trying to avoid usurping legislative powers. This article suggests that until legislatures establish clear guidelines for identifying parents, intent to create a child to raise as one?s own should determine parentage when any form of ART is utilized. In fact, as legislatures tackle this complicated issue, intent can provide a reasonable determining factor of a legal parent.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on June 18, 2009 (boomark / email).