A Family Law Revolution: Changing Attitudes About Parentage in Nontraditional Families' Use of Collaborative Reproduction
California State Bar Family Law News, Vol. 30, No. 3, p. 16, 2008
9 Pages Posted: 24 Nov 2008
Abstract
This article discusses the impact on modern concepts of parenthood created by the use of collaborative reproduction in non-traditional families, especially same-sex unions. It notes how the courts in California and elsewhere have urged the legislature to enact statutory guidelines regarding the use of this technology to assist in sorting out conflicting parentage claims in circumstances in which the older laws of parenthood simply do not any longer fit. Courts in California have had to struggle and conceive of new categories of parenthood, along with a few other states (such as Arizona, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) with little statutory guidance. Cases cited in the article have involved issues of support, custody, visitation, pre-birth orders of parentage and post-death use of gametes. The author cites provisions from the still largely un-enacted 2002 amendments to the Uniform Parentage Act as providing some hoped-for guidance. He also mentions the new American Bar Association Model Act on Assisted Reproduction as a potential source of clarifying legislation.
Author's Note: The Model Act Governing Assisted Reproductive Technology, which was referenced in this article as a proposal, was finalized and approved by the A.B.A. House of Delegates in 2008. See Charles P. Kindregan, Jr. and Steven H. Snyder, Clarifying the Law of ART: The New American Bar Association Model Act Governing Assisted Reproductive Technology, 42 Family Law Q. 203 (2008), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1275999.
Keywords: Uniform Parentage Act, Model Act on Assisted Reproduction, Non-traditional families, Same-sex unions, Collaborative Reproduction, Parentage, Parenthood, Changing family life, Posthumous reproducion, In vitro fertilization, Pre-birth orders
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