' O Brave New World: Assisted Reproduction and Same-Sex Couples | MTTLR

O Brave New World: Assisted Reproduction and Same-Sex Couples

This past spring, Italian fashion designers Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce (think Dolce & Gabbana) took heat for comments they made about IVF, triggering a backlash from Elton John, celebrities, and indignant social media users. Dolce was quoted in a magazine as stating: “wombs for rent, sperm selected from a catalogue… Who would agree to be the daughter of chemistry?” This quote illustrates that in the West (and even among gay and lesbian individuals), assisted reproductive technology is raising social questions about the family.

For those not familiar with the technology, In vitro Fertilization (IVF) is a procedure used to treat fertility and genetic problems. During the process, mature eggs are taken from the ovaries, fertilized by sperm in the lab, and implanted in the uterus.

The US is still grappling with the complex legal issues raised by assisted reproductive technology for same-sex couples. In 1993, a Massachusetts court looked at a joint petition by a lesbian couple to adopt a child that was biologically related to only one of the women. The court held that both parents had adoptive rights and the child could inherit from both. In that case, the court was able to settle inheritance and adoption rights from the bench. Yet in 2015, there is still little relevant case law and widely varying state laws on the subject of assisted reproduction and same-sex couples. As tens of thousands of babies continue to be born through IDF in the U.S. and same-sex relationships become increasingly accepted, lawyers will have the opportunity to play a role in defining what these new relationships will mean for family law issues such as adoption, divorce, surrogacy, and inheritance.

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Stephen Handlon is an editor on the Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review, and a member of the University  Michigan Law School class of 2017.

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