Public Lectures from the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge

This conference, organised by Cambridge Family Law together with the International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL) and the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Family Law, explored a range of issues and challenges surrounding the law and practice of national and international surrogacy from a practical perspective. Practitioners, lawmakers, academics and other participants will discuss the legal consequences of the rise in surrogacy arrangements and, in particular, reproductive tourism.

For more information about the conference see:

https://www.family.law.cam.ac.uk/research-and-eventspast-events/international-surrogacy-forum-2019

This recording is from Part I – The Prohibitive Approach, with Caroline Mécary (Avocate aux barreaux de Paris et du Québec, Paris/France) as commentator.

Caroline Mecary is an attorney, member of the Bar of Paris since 1991. In 1993, she established her own law firm devoted to all sorts of families’ rights.

She was the first French attorney to defend homoparental families. In this field, she obtained some great success before both national and international courts such as the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Hence, she allowed a lesbian to have the right to adopt (ECHR, 22 January 2008, E.B c/ France). She enabled children resulting for a surrogacy to have their birth certificate transcribed by the French registry office (ECHR, 21 July 2016, Foulon & Bouvet c/ France; ECHR, 19 July 2017, Laborie c/ France). She also obtained the right for a same-sex couple to enter in a civil partnership (ECHR, 7 November 2013, Vallianatos c/ Greece).

This conference, organised by Cambridge Family Law together with the International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL) and the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Family Law, explored a range of issues and challenges surrounding the law and practice of national and international surrogacy from a practical perspective. Practitioners, lawmakers, academics and other participants will discuss the legal consequences of the rise in surrogacy arrangements and, in particular, reproductive tourism.

For more information about the conference see:

https://www.family.law.cam.ac.uk/research-and-eventspast-events/international-surrogacy-forum-2019

This recording is from Part VI – The International Dimension, with Maud de Boer-Buquicchio (UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography) speaking on 'The work of the UN on surrogacy'.

Maud de Boer-Buquicchio (the Netherlands), a lawyer by education, was appointed as UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography in May 2014. She is also President of the European Federation for Missing and Exploited Children (“Missing Children Europe”). Throughout her professional career, Maud has focussed on children’s human rights. In 1969, she joined the Council of Europe where she worked in different capacities in the human rights protection mechanism set up under the European Convention on Human Rights.

In 1998, she was elected Deputy Registrar of the European Court of Human Rights. Between 2002 and 2012, she served as Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the first woman elected to this post. In that capacity she spearheaded three Council of Europe key Conventions, namely, the Convention on action against trafficking in human beings, the Convention on the protection of children from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, and the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. In her capacity as UN Special Rapporteur she dedicated thematic reports to, inter alia, vulnerabilities of children to sale, trafficking and other forms of exploitation in situations of conflict and humanitarian crises; sexual exploitation of children and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs); illegal adoptions, and commercial surrogacy and the sale of children.

She intends to present her 2019 thematic report to the UN General Assembly on "Safeguards for the Protection of the Rights of the Child in the Context of Surrogacy Arrangements”.

This conference, organised by Cambridge Family Law together with the International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL) and the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Family Law, explored a range of issues and challenges surrounding the law and practice of national and international surrogacy from a practical perspective. Practitioners, lawmakers, academics and other participants will discuss the legal consequences of the rise in surrogacy arrangements and, in particular, reproductive tourism.

For more information about the conference see:

https://www.family.law.cam.ac.uk/research-and-eventspast-events/international-surrogacy-forum-2019

This recording is from Part III – The Free Market Approach, with Steve Snyder (Steven H. Snyder & Associates, Minnesota, USA) acting as commentator.

Steven H. Snyder, Esq. is the founding and principal partner of Steven H. Snyder & Associates, LLC, in Maple Grove, Minnesota. He is also the Director of the International Assisted Reproduction Center, LLC, a U.S. surrogacy and egg donation agency.

Mr Snyder is a member of the American Bar Association and previous Chair of the Assisted Reproductive Technology Committee of the Family Law Section. Mr. Snyder is a frequent national and international speaker on assisted reproductive technology topics.

This conference, organised by Cambridge Family Law together with the International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL) and the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Family Law, explored a range of issues and challenges surrounding the law and practice of national and international surrogacy from a practical perspective. Practitioners, lawmakers, academics and other participants will discuss the legal consequences of the rise in surrogacy arrangements and, in particular, reproductive tourism.

For more information about the conference see:

https://www.family.law.cam.ac.uk/research-and-eventspast-events/international-surrogacy-forum-2019

This recording is from Part III – The Free Market Approach, with Erika Fuchs sharing her personal experience.

Erika Fuchs, PhD, MPH, is a former gestational carrier who delivered twins in the US in 2006. Professionally, she is an assistant professor in the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Women's Health and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. As a social and behavioral epidemiologist and expert in women's and children's health, she studies associations between maternal behaviors and perinatal and pediatric health outcomes. Erika led a study of gestational carriers to examine clinical and psychological screening experiences and pregnancy outcomes.

This conference, organised by Cambridge Family Law together with the International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL) and the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Family Law, explored a range of issues and challenges surrounding the law and practice of national and international surrogacy from a practical perspective. Practitioners, lawmakers, academics and other participants will discuss the legal consequences of the rise in surrogacy arrangements and, in particular, reproductive tourism.

For more information about the conference see:

https://www.family.law.cam.ac.uk/research-and-eventspast-events/international-surrogacy-forum-2019

This recording is from Part III – The Free Market Approach, with Courtney G. Joslin (UC Davis School of Law).

Courtney Joslin is a Professor of Law and Martin Luther King Jr. Research Scholar at UC Davis School of Law. Professor Joslin is a leading expert in the areas of family and relationship recognition, with a particular focus is on same-sex and unmarried couples. Professor Joslin served as the Reporter for the Uniform Parentage Act (2017). A product of the U.S. Uniform Law Commission, the UPA (2017) addresses the parentage of children born through surrogacy arrangements as well as the ability of children conceived through assisted reproduction to access information about their gamete providers.

Professor Joslin's publications have appeared in the Boston University Law Review, the Harvard Civil Rights - Civil Liberties Law Review, the Harvard Law Review Forum, the Indiana Law Journal, the Iowa Law Review, the Southern California Law Review, the UCLA Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal Forum, among other sources. She is a co-author (with William N. Eskridge Jr. & Nan D. Hunter) of the textbook--Sexuality, Gender, and the Law. She is also co-author (with Shannon P. Minter & Catherine Sakimura) of a leading treatise--Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Family Law.