Why Donor Insemination Requires Developments in Family Law—The Need for New Definitions of Parenthood

Abstract

During May 2008 there were heated debates and exchanges in the House of Commons over some of the provisions contained within the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill (HFE Bill).1 Four issues received the most media, and thereby public, attention—‘saviour siblings’, the time limits for terminating a pregnancy, the production of human and non-human animal hybrids and the removal of the requirement to consider the need for a father in section 13(5) of the current Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (HFEA 1990) when considering the welfare of a child conceived using IVF. While all of these issues will be of interest to readers of this journal, it is the latter which provides a topical backdrop for Jones' book which, among other things, explores how law views, regulates and delineates families in the context of one particular assisted reproductive technology—donor insemination. In a move reminiscent of the debates and attempted...