In England, a Family Court judge, Mr. MacDonald, has noted that judges have to rule on increasingly complex family situations: “Judges, practitioners and professionals are more and more concerned with cases that arise from surrogacy arrangements between individuals, litigation arising out of IVF treatment,” he explained. They also have to deal with disputes between doctors and the parents of terminally ill children, such as the recent case between Charlie Gard’s parents and Great Ormond Street Hospital (see Charlie Gard: the 10 key points of the case unravelled).
The court mostly deals with the cases of children born in other jurisdictions, unaccompanied asylum seekers and refugee children. Moreover, “The volume of child abduction cases has increased markedly over recent years,” he added.
This month, a ruling was given on the case of a surrogate mother who decided to keep the baby she originally agreed to have for another couple. Last month, a father lost his case against a medically assisted procreation clinic after claiming that his ex-wife had falsified his signature on consent papers (see United Kingdom: child born through IVF without the father’s consent). “Many of the problems for children will require a solution before Parliament has time to legislate,” explained the judge who has called for an update in the law governing such issues.
Editor’s note: If the updating of the laws can make it possible to set rules of conduct and to frame practices, it can also liberalise them, endorsing new prejudices for the child.
TheTelegraph, Olivia Rudgrad (28/11/2017)