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7719 results in Intersentia

Page 327 of 386

  • Chapter 3 - Overview of the National Regulations in Ten European Countries

  • from PART I - MAPPING THE TERRAIN FROM AN INTERDISCIPLINARY AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
  • Elena Ignovsk
  • Book:
    Sperm Donation, Single Women and Filiation
    Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    12 December 2017
    Print publication:
    28 October 2015, pp 81-112

  • Summary

    GENERAL OVERVIEW

    THE RIGHT OF SINGLE WOMEN TO USE ART

    From the information gathered by the International Federation of Fertility Societies Surveillance 2010, single women are allowed access to ART as a principle rule covered by statuses or guidelines in:

  • – EU Member countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Spain and the United Kingdom.

  • – Acceding EU countries: Iceland, Montenegro and Serbia.

  • – Other countries in the world: Canada, Israel, Russia, South Africa, USA, Belarus, Ghana, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Ukraine and Venezuela.

    • Single women have access to ART even though it is regulated neither by statutes nor by guidelines in: the Dominican Republic, Israel, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Uganda and Uruguay.

    A rather political value was given to the issue of single women's access to ART in Slovenia where it was decided by referendum on 17 June 2001. After long debates, Slovenians decided that single women should not have access to ART with 72.36% of voters opposing and only 26.38% supporting it.

    From the European countries analysed below, single women cannot exercise their reproductive right by sperm donation in Italy, France, Germany and Sweden. They can apply for sperm donation and eventually conceive a child only under particular circumstances in the Republic of Macedonia, Republic of Croatia and Republic of Serbia. Single women are allowed access to ART without particular conditions and on equal grounds to everybody in the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

    THE RIGHT OF THE CHILD TO KNOW THE IDENTITY OF THE DONOR

    Identifying information regarding the donor can be revealed (regulated by statutes or guidelines) in:

  • – EU Member countries: Germany, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Sweden, Finland and the United Kingdom.

  • – Acceding EU countries: Montenegro.

  • – Other countries in the world: Brazil, Australia, Hong Kong, Argentina, New Zealand, the USA and Vietnam.

    • According to the Steering Committee of Bioethics, identifying the donor, initiated by the child, is also possible in Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Norway, Spain, Iceland, Georgia, Switzerland and Canada. Identifying information can also be available for the court only in Latvia, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine and Israel.

    Identifying information regarding the donor can be revealed (even though regulation does not exist in statutes and/or guidelines) in Cameroon, Columbia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Jamaica, Peru, Togo and Uruguay.

Sperm Donation, Single Women and Filiation
  • Elena Ignovsk
  • Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    12 December 2017
    Print publication:
    28 October 2015
  • Although recent family law debates have been predominantly paedo-centric, the founding of "bio-medically assisted families" still focuses on the individual parents' rights to reproduce. By introducing donations, the donor's genetic contribution becomes instrumental and the legal attribution of parenthood negotiated through expressed intentions. The absence of a genetic, social and legal father can only occur in single women's conceptions by choice, hence calling into question the role of the societal father.This neglects the future child's voice in private and family life issues on at least two levels: informational (lacking information about origins, often related to personal identity) and legal and functional (care provided by both parents). It furthermore emphasises the inconsistency in the treatment of "naturally" and "artificially" conceived children since the latter have restricted access to parental judicial proceedings.The conflicts between individuals in the family go beyond national family laws and become a matter of reconciling progenitors' and children's human rights. Yet the discrepancies between different civil law jurisdictions are remarkable. In addition, the sensitivity of the filiation of children conceived by sperm donation to single women requires more than legal solutions - it requires an interdisciplinary approach encompassing ethics, psychology, anthropology and sociology. Moreover, by arguing and suggesting solutions the issue also becomes political. Hence, this book provokes the curious minds of lawyers, ethicists, physicians, bio-technologists and those assisting and wishing to found families. It clarifies concepts, studies the rationale behind the legal complexity in ten national European jurisdictions, and confronts the rights and responsibilities of the stakeholders, providing a balanced independent conclusion and suggestions towards international harmonisation.

  • Chapter 8 - Applying the Results of the Analysis in the Case of the Republic of Macedonia

  • from PART III - LEGAL WAYS OF ESTABLISHING FATHERHOOD
  • Elena Ignovsk
  • Book:
    Sperm Donation, Single Women and Filiation
    Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    12 December 2017
    Print publication:
    28 October 2015, pp 307-346

  • Summary

    MAPPING THE TERRAIN FOR THE DISCUSSION

    The lenses for the perception of reproduction in the Western and Eastern European countries are different. While in general the Western countries consider the project of having children as a matter of personal choice made by individuals or couples, in the Eastern countries, reproduction can also be perceived as a social obligation, providing continuity on a small scale of the family name, and on a large scale of the nation. Therefore, in the Eastern European countries parenthood has deeper social roots that go along with more severe consequences of involuntary childlessness. A pronatalist society usually has the justification for such policy in the wider nation-state ideology, instead of individual well-being and self-fulfilment. This is consistent with Foucault's premises that reproductive sexuality has turned into a domain of collective anxiety and state intervention due to the fact that the future of our species and our nation depends on it. The policy of prioritising the greater public good over the individual is covered by linking a person's social and moral worth to reproduction.

    On a general level, the perception is that sperm and oocyte donation are more easily available in the Eastern European than in the Western European countries. This perception makes the Eastern European countries be considered favourable destinations for those seeking cross-border reproductive treatments. Some studies have recorded large numbers of patients from Austria, Italy, Germany and the UK travelling to more recently joined European Union Member States such as Czech Republic and Slovenia (2004) to seek medical care. The reasons are associated with favourable legislative environment, accompanied with implemented EU Directives for quality and safety, as well as the lower prices for medical care. Another reason for putting Eastern European countries on the map for cross-border reproductive tourism for these authors is the firmly accepted anonymity of the donors (five countries allowing non-identifying information, while only three countries allow identifying information of the donors). For some other authors, the most common reasons for travelling for reproductive purposes is law evasion when the technique is either forbidden per se or when a particular group is excluded from treatment. There may also be some other access limitations, such as long waiting lists, poor quality or expensive treatments.

  • Chapter 4 - Assisting Single Women to Found Families

  • from PART II - THE LEGAL, ETHICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL POSITIONS OF THE PARTICIPANTS
  • Elena Ignovsk
  • Book:
    Sperm Donation, Single Women and Filiation
    Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    12 December 2017
    Print publication:
    28 October 2015, pp 115-182

  • Summary

    An international study in 16 countries has demonstrated that the majority of adults consider reproducing and rearing a child in the family to be necessary for their personal development. A study in the United States found that more than 90% of women either have children or expect to have them in the future, while only 6% of women are voluntarily childless. This shows an attitude that continuing the genes or a dream for a family with children is the prevailing choice for most people.

    One of the most prominent feminists, Simone de Beauvoir, criticised the oppressiveness of normative femininity as subordinate to reproduction and motherhood as if it is the utmost desire in the women's domain. She argued that women's reproductive bodies are a reason for their subordinate social status, while describing the strong emotional link between mother and child as “mutual and harmful oppression”. Thus, reproduction and its role in women's lives have led to disagreements among feminists regarding reproductive freedom and its interpretation – negative, as not to procreate, or positive, as to have children when wanted. Striving for liberation, feminists’ focus was set for a long time on the negative right promoting birth control, abortion and collective methods of childbearing. With the reproductive technologies revolution, feminists’ politics changed. The new liberation took place on several levels. Firstly, the biological age limits were extended (allowing women professional opportunities). Secondly, changing women's reproductive nature with the artificiality of reproduction relieved the social reproductive pressure and silenced the voices that claimed that women's intrinsic nature is above all to be a mother. Nevertheless, what is similar to the current battle for individual positive reproductive rights is the struggle to separate between public and private spheres, as expressed in the feminist's second-wave slogan: “the personal is political”. As this wave aimed at minimising the gender differences, thus lobbying for gender-neutrality, the more recent trends aim at celebrating female differences, among others the ability to give birth to a child, thus claiming the moral superiority of women. Moreover, treating women and men equally is a ground for injustice, bearing in mind their natural inequalities.

  • Foreword

    • By Gerd Verschelden, Director of the Institute for Family Law, Ghent University, Belgium
  • Elena Ignovsk
  • Book:
    Sperm Donation, Single Women and Filiation
    Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    12 December 2017
    Print publication:
    28 October 2015, pp vii-viii

  • Summary

    On 10 September 2014, Ghent University Law School (Belgium) awarded Elena Ignovska the degree of Doctor of Law. It was my privilege to supervise her three year research project resulting in this doctorate, which was funded by the Basileus Erasmus Mundus Action 2 Programme of the European Commission. The present volume is the commercial edition of her dissertation, which was entitled “Affiliation of Children Conceived by Sperm Donation to Single Women: The (Im)possibility to Establish Fatherhood from an International Perspective with a Focus on the Republic of Macedonia”.

    This book holds a methodologically well thought-out analysis of the complex and captivating issues connected with deliberate solitary motherhood both in international law and in the national law of ten European countries. It is a legal dissertation based on empirical, sociological and ethical literature. This multifaceted approach helps to develop the author's argument. Discussing the topic from interdisciplinary, national and international viewpoints and in a historical context offers a clear perspective for finding universal solutions. This opens the until now mostly nationally perceived field of family law up to international observation, and thus enhances the discussion on affiliation in the Macedonian family law context.

    From a fitting abstract position, the author offers in Part II an original analysis using three different perspectives: the standpoint of the single mother with the desire to have children, the viewpoint of the sperm donor, and thirdly the perspective of the children, born of single mothers who were fertilised with donor sperm. One of the key issues is whether the right to have access to assisted reproductive technology of the deliberately solitary mother combined with the protection of the donor's anonymity isn't inevitably in conflict with the child's fundamental human rights, including the right to know one's genetic identity, the right to family life (and to have a relationship with one's parents) and the right to due process. The author makes a comparative assessment throughout the whole thesis, by collating the position of children born of single mothers fertilised with sperm from an anonymous donor and the position of children of heterosexual couples or (of secondary importance) of children born to single mothers whose fathers are known.

  • Chapter 2 - International Regulations

  • from PART I - MAPPING THE TERRAIN FROM AN INTERDISCIPLINARY AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
  • Elena Ignovsk
  • Book:
    Sperm Donation, Single Women and Filiation
    Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    12 December 2017
    Print publication:
    28 October 2015, pp 33-80

  • Summary

    The degrading human treatment that left black marks on human history after the World War II increased international recognition of human rights, followed by human rights treaties as core prerogatives for building common ground for the future. Setting the key principles that represent minimum moral standards was an attempt to reconcile the damage not between States, but primarily between a particular state and the individual. Shifting to the human person as the most important agent worthy of protection, the focus of international attention resulted in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR). The Declaration was followed by (among others) the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). These international documents also set the minimum standards for the protection of individuals and human dignity in the field of private and family life alone or in conjunction with the obligation of society to enable the conditions necessary to ensure the individual's physical and mental health through access to medical services for everyone. The more specific international regulation regarding particular groups worthy of particular protection (and out of interest for this work) was achieved by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The new scientific developments in the field of life-creation, and therefore in the fields of human dignity, planned parenthood, and private and family life, pointed to the need for a universal principle and regulation that was achieved in the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights (UDHGHR) and the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (UDBHR).

    After establishing the principles, the need for an effective safeguard for their implementation was more than necessary.

    The regional mechanism for ensuring protection on already established principles in Europe had already been established and implemented through the Council of Europe. The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) that followed accepted in its preamble the responsibility to confirm, implement and ensure the rights set down in the UDHR.

  • Chapter 6 - Children Conceived by Sperm Donors’ Assistance to Single Women

  • from PART II - THE LEGAL, ETHICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL POSITIONS OF THE PARTICIPANTS
  • Elena Ignovsk
  • Book:
    Sperm Donation, Single Women and Filiation
    Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    12 December 2017
    Print publication:
    28 October 2015, pp 225-266

  • Summary

    The CRC defines a child as “every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier”. This construction leaves the beginning of childhood open, for purposes of not confronting the everlasting debate when human life and personhood starts, thus not endangering its universal ratification. Nevertheless, the Preamble of the Convention shows continuation of the tradition of the 1959 Declaration on the Rights of the Child, and explicitly takes over the statement that “the child by reason of his physical and mental immaturity needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection before as well as after birth”. This, though, should not interfere with the interpretation of the definition of the child as provided in article 1, leaving it up to the State Parties to decide how they will regulate abortions and family planning.

    The term “child” could also be used in relation to the link with the parents and not solely in relation to age. In this sense, the child never ceases to be a child in relation to his/her parents. Nevertheless, it also never becomes the case that a possibility of establishing the link is not provided. Therefore, the issues of parenthood and parental responsibilities are irretrievably related to the child's legal position. As related to its age, the child is entitled in its full capacity to act as an agent for itself after reaching majority, i.e. after ceasing to be a child in the general sense. During discussions of the CRC Committee regarding the concept of the child's evolving capacities it was pointed out that its purpose is not to overpower the child but to emphasise parental responsibilities over their authority. The concept of a child as an active subject of rights (related to articles 5, 12 and 16 CRC) was meant to strengthen the rights of the entire family. Therefore the focus of evolving capacities should not only be on the children's growing autonomy in relation to their parents, but also on their own process of development (articles 6, 27 and 29 CRC).

    For some authors, children's rights usually only come into play when they conflict with their parents’ or prospective parents’ rights.

  • Introduction

  • Elena Ignovsk
  • Book:
    Sperm Donation, Single Women and Filiation
    Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    12 December 2017
    Print publication:
    28 October 2015, pp 1-8

  • Summary

    “Science enhances the moral value of life, because it furthers a love of truth and reverence – love of truth displaying itself in the constant endeavour to arrive at a more exact knowledge of the world of mind and matter around us, and reverence, because every advance in knowledge brings us face to face with the mystery of our own being”.

    Max Planck, Where is Science Going? Translated by James Murphy (1932)

    The enormous progress of science is eagerly welcomed with regard to the growing prosperity of humankind. On the road of unstoppable scientific progress, some intrinsic human values have been endangered, thus confronting humanity with manifold moral and legal dilemmas. The possibilities, such as the assisted reproductive technologies, teeter at the very edge of ethical sensitivity regarding life and the application of science.

    At the very essence of the circle of existence is reproduction, as a process of continuing the human species and thus striving for eternity. What was once considered a natural process following coitus is now more than ever a planned and conscious transformation of human life when people are ready and willing to undertake the parental role.

    The first test tube baby – Louise Brown, born in Great Britain in 1978 – was probably the most famous baby in the world. Louise Brown was not only a product of conception by her parents, but also of a new and revolutionary concept in reproductive medicine, thus starting a revolution in modern families all over the world. Until Louise was born, the ethical and legal aspects regarding the process of giving birth and founding a family were focused around debates on contraception, abortion, sterilisation and, inevitably, women's bodily integrity. In vitro fertilisation (IVF) breached the exclusivity of a woman's body in which, until then, conception always took place. A woman's body, specifically her womb, no longer has primacy in the process of conception. IVF also breached the exclusivity and even outdated the modus of conceiving a child: coitus between a man and a woman. From here on, IVF has created opportunities for modelling and indeed manipulating the act of human conception, arising from the new scientific developments in bio-reproductive medicine. These new opportunities became the only possibility for some parents to have genetically related offspring.

  • Chapter 1 - Introduction

  • Natalie Nikolin
  • Book:
    Divided Parents, Shared Children
    Published by:
    Intersentia
    Published online:
    12 December 2017
    Print publication:
    23 October 2015, pp 1-8

  • Summary

    STUDY BACKGROUND

    Never before have there been as many changes in the position and the structure of the family in Dutch society as in the last 50 years. Both our concept of what it means to be a parent and what consists of a family unit have evolved and are still evolving drastically. As the law is in place to protect and reflect society, modern family law is also rapidly reforming to accommodate the many societal changes.

    In the area of post-separation parenting, the demand for the genders to be treated equally, the growing awareness of not just the need to protect children, but also their intrinsic rights, and the growing number of separations and the establishment of new families have required the law to find new solutions as to how to deal with post-separation issues.

    ‘[T]he norms associated with fatherhood have shifted in recent decades toward a new concept that embraces both economic support and childcare responsibilities’. The growing awareness of the importance of contact with fathers for the children's well-being after parental separation, and the growing involvement of fathers in childcare during marriage, have caused fathers to be more involved in their children's lives after parental separation. Subsequently, fathers have started to demand more favourable contact, care and residence arrangements in the courts, and they want to see greater legal equality between parents.

    As the position of fathers changed, so did the position of children. This change had come about even earlier and on a more international scale. More and more international and European instruments emphasize children's rights while the best interests of the child have become the main consideration in national family law. How to safeguard these interests when more and more children experience the often traumatic situation of their parents’ separation is a question that is at the forefront of a great deal of discussion among policy makers, legislators and legal professionals. In the Netherlands alone, approximately 57,000 children a year experience parental separation. That is more than one in four children.

Page 327 of 386