Richard published in The Review on divorce after assisted conceptio

Richard has written an article published in this month’s The Review on what divorce lawyers need to know about managing relationship breakdown cases for couples who have conceived through fertility treatment or in alternative family structures. You can read the full article here.

At NGA, we deal with many divorce, civil partnership dissolution and relationship breakdown cases and have particular expertise helping non traditional families, including gay and lesbian couples and families conceived through surrogacy, donor conception and fertility treatment. Richard joined our team to support this aspect of our work, and his article explains some of the complexities involved in the cases we deal with. These include civil partnership dissolution for same sex couples, children law issues for parents with donor or surrogacy conceived children, couples who have been through fertility treatment and may have embryos in storage, and untangling the financial issues that arise in these scenarios. These types of cases can be challenging and complex and clients often need specialist advice and value experience of the sensitive issues involved.

The Review is a leading UK journal for family lawyers. It is published by Resolution (formerly the Solicitors Family Law Association), an association of family lawyers committed to handling family law cases in a constructive and non-confrontational way. Richard is a member of Resolution.

If you would like more information about how we can help with relationship breakdown, whether it be civil partnership dissolution, divorce, known donor disputes, or children matters please contact Richard at richard@nataliegmableassociates.com or 0844 357 1602. There is also more information about our relationship breakdown services on our website.

Natalie speaks at leading conference, with Supreme Court justice Baroness Hale

Natalie was delighted to speak alongside Baroness Hale at a leading conference in London on 20-21 June hosted by academics at the Morgan Centre and gathering leading UK and international experts in donor conception and alternative reproduction.

Baroness Hale of Richmond (first woman Justice of the Supreme Court, and former chair of the committee which drafted the very first HFEA Code of Practice in 1990) gave the conference opening address, speaking about the law for ‘new families’ and how the family courts have sought to uphold the welfare of the child in a range of cases involving donor conception, lesbian parenting and surrogacy.

Natalie, invited to give the response to Lady Hale’s address, shared her practical perspective of the issues affecting non-traditional families on the ground.  She talked about the deficiencies of current UK law on surrogacy, and how important the new legal rights are for same sex parents.  She discussed how complex and divisive known donor disputes can be, and how in practice unequal biological or legal parentage between separating parents can raise temperatures significantly.  But she also noted that many parents conceiving in non-traditional ways do so with enormous care and planning, and stressed that the success stories should be remembered as well as the difficult cases which come to court.

A range of eminent speakers on sociological, international and practical aspects of donor conception then addressed the conference, including leading academics from Manchester and Cambridge University, experienced practitioners at fertility clinics, experts in bioethics and international lawyers from Scandinavia (with Denmark being one of the world’s leading suppliers of donor sperm).  Professor Carol Smart and Dr Petra Nordqvist, who hosted the conference, presented the results of their fascinating research project on donor conception, which has explored the feelings of parents and grandparents in different family forms about the implications of having conceived a child with the help of a donor.

You can read Natalie’s response to Baroness Hale here, or find out more about our campaigning work.  You can also find out more about the Morgan Centre’s research: Relative strangers – a key new study of information sharing and senses of connectedness in donor conceived families.

Conceiving with a known donor or co-parent - how fertility counsellors can help and what they need to know

There are many issues to consider for parents considering conceiving with a known donor or co-parent. With a minefield of information to navigate, parents can be left asking: what do we need to know? How do we set things up? How do we avoid problems in the future?

Where conception takes place at a fertility clinic, counsellors can play a key role in answering these questions. In the light of the recent landmark decision on known sperm donation, BICA – the association for UK fertility counsellors – asked NGA to give some guidance on what fertility counsellors need to know about the law on known donation, to help them do their job effectively.

Nicola Scott’s article in the BICA journal gives an overview of UK law and the implications of the case, and explains how early intervention by fertility counsellors can shape known donor arrangements positively by encouraging parents and donors to iron out potential issues and mismatched expectations at an early stage. You can read the full article here.

We advise parents on a wide spectrum of arrangements by clarifying not only the legal issues but also the practical aspects which are all too often overshadowed. Please see our donor conception pages for more information, or contact us to discuss your arrangement and options here.