Category: Biotechnology

Large and diverse group of people seen from above gathered together in the shape of two intersecting circles.

An Intersectional Analysis of Proposed Fertility Leave in England and Wales

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By Elizabeth Chloe Romanis and Sabrina Germain

For people in England and Wales needing access to fertility treatment, economic barriers can be a huge hurdle. There are the direct costs of the treatment (some, but not all, of which are covered by the National Health Service). But there are also the less visible indirect costs associated with accessing these treatments. These include needing time off work to attend appointments, funding travel to and from fertility clinics, and having access to spaces at work to store and administer medication and take private phone calls. Indirect costs limit access to fertility treatment for structurally disadvantaged individuals in England and Wales. It is for this reason that a Private Member’s Bill currently being debated in the House of Commons, the Fertility Treatment (Employment Rights) Bill, which seeks to introduce fertility leave in the UK, should be welcomed (see earlier posts in this symposium by Dafni Lima and Manna Mostaghim).

Introducing a formal entitlement to “allow employees to take time off from work for appointments for fertility treatment; and for connected purposes” is a step in the right direction. We offer an intersectional reading of the Fertility Treatment (Employment Rights) Bill and consider how the benefits offered are likely to be stratified along class, race, sexuality, and gender lines. The Bill is well-meaning and highlights the critical issue of indirect barriers to fertility treatment in the workplace, but it is inattentive to structural issues affecting marginalized people experiencing infertility.

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Fertility Leave: Seeking Assisted Reproductive Technology as an Employee in the UK

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By Manna Mostaghim

Fertility leave — employer-sanctioned time off for fertility treatment appointments — is becoming a feature of modern employment relationships in the UK. Some public and private sector employers in the UK have fertility leave policies within their organizations; however, currently there is no “statutory right to time off for fertility appointments” in UK law. As of March 20th, 2023, a private members’ bill (the Fertility Treatment (Employment Rights) Bill) has had its second reading in the House of Commons to codify the right for employers to be required to “allow employees to take time off from work for appointments for fertility treatment.” But, as it stands, employees in the UK still require the beneficent support of their employers to receive support and fertility leave in their workplaces.

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A Liquid Nitrogen Bank Containing Sperm and Eggs Samples - ivf - in vitro fertilization, egg freezing.

Egg Freezing in Israel: Legal Framework and Women’s Viewpoints

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By Yael Hashiloni-Dolev and Nitzan Rimon-Zarfaty

In 2009, Israel was one of the first countries to authorize social egg freezing, before it was declared non-experimental.

Israel is a highly pronatalist familistic society with relatively high marriage rates, low divorce rates, and the highest birth rate among OECD countries. Israeli pronatalism frames the favorable Israeli approach to fertility medicine and preservation. Currently, egg freezing is used for both medical and social reasons, and for transgender men.

Israeli policy views social egg freezing as primarily enabling, based on liberal ideology, “individual autonomy.”

Indeed, on one hand, social egg freezing has been praised as a revolutionary solution for women’s age-related fertility decline, thus providing women with liberating opportunities. On the other hand, it has been criticized for as oriented toward women’s bodies rather than toward taking away social obstacles to their full participation in the labor market and society in general. Giant corporations such as Apple and Facebook have offered funding for social egg freezing to their female employees while provoking ongoing bioethical and public debates regarding their implications, including; medicalization, (dis)empowerment, “appropriate” motherhood, medical risks, and success rates. This post considers these debates with a focus on the Israeli context.

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Newborn infant incubator boxes in a hospital corridor.

Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023: Some Questions Raised by Artificial Amniotic and Placenta Technology

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By Anna Nelson

Traditionally, maternity and other parental leave protections have been predicated on expectations of linear and uncomplicated experience of birth. This has created challenges when babies are required to spend time in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU), especially where these stays are prolonged. In response to these concerns the UK recently passed the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023.

The passing of the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 was a significant step forward in labor law rights for those whose infants require a hospital stay upon delivery (though the provisions within it are not expected to come into effect until April 2025). This Act created statutory entitlement to up to 12 weeks of neonatal care leave, and pay for qualifying parents, as well as providing protection from redundancy during this time. While the right to neonatal care leave is a “day one right,” the statutory right to Neonatal Care pay will be contingent upon meeting minimum service (26 weeks) and pay criteria. This means that not all parents will be protected from the financial worries associated with taking leave during their child’s stay in hospital.

In this blog, I will look at whether the protections within this Act would be sufficient if Artificial Amniotic and Placenta Technology (AAPT) were to become available for use in humans. AAPT, sometimes called “artificial womb technology,” is a developing technological innovation which would “closely reproduce[s] the environment of the womb” so as to support neonatal maturation, and reduce the mortality and morbidity rates associated with extremely premature birth. This is an expansive topic, and the purpose of this blog is to identify some key considerations and questions rather than to provide comprehensive answers!

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Conceiving a New Interpretation of Equality Law for Those Undergoing Fertility Treatments

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By Michelle Weldon-Johns

An increasing number of people in the UK undergo assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatments annually to conceive or to preserve fertility. HFEA data show that in the UK in 2019, nearly 53,000 persons received 68,975 cycles of IVF, 5,694 cycles of donor insemination treatment, 2,396 egg freeze cycles and 8,174 embryos were stored. This has significant implications for working persons, with the requirements to attend often time-sensitive appointments and undergo, at times, invasive fertility treatments that have an impact on availability for work, not to mention physical and mental effects. Nevertheless, those engaged in ART treatment find themselves outside the traditional boundaries of equality law protection. This is concerning given the potential for treatment to interfere with work and/or workplace performance, and their resulting vulnerability to discrimination and/or dismissal.

The UK Equality Act 2010 extends protection only to those who satisfy one of nine specific protected characteristics, with sex, pregnancy and maternity, and disability most relevant here. However, none of these characteristics alone offers sufficient protection for all those engaged in ART treatments. Nevertheless, equality law offers some possibilities for the future if developed appropriately.

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Wide Angle View Of Busy Design Office With Workers At Desks.

The Problems with Employer-Funded Elective Egg Freezing

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By Kathleen (Katie) Hammond

We have seen a growing trend in recent years of companies covering some, or all, of the cost of elective (i.e., non-medical) egg freezing as an employee benefit. For instance, Meta, Google, Netflix, Uber, and Apple are among the list of companies that offer some coverage for elective egg freezing.

In this piece, I explore four concerns with employer-funded elective egg freezing. While there are many upsides, employers should be mindful of how funding egg freezing may impact workplace culture. They should be careful about how information about the procedure is disseminated, and they need to be careful not to discriminate in regards to who can access it. Additionally, employer-funded elective egg freezing is not a replacement for other institutional benefits that foster workplace equality and parenthood-work balance such as paid parental leave, flexible work schedules, and funding for childcare.

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figurine with a void shape of a child and family of parents with a child. Surrogacy concept.

Forced Gifting: English Surrogacy, Gestational Labor, and the Inequality of Choice

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By Lucas Taylor

Surrogacy, the practice in which one party (the surrogate) gestates a fetus on behalf of another pair/person (the intended parent/s or IPs), has sparked academic debates regarding gender equality and bodily integrity in the face of both commercial and altruistic agreements. I re-engage with this topic by challenging how the capacity of the surrogate to choose may be restricted under English and Welsh law. This post does not seek to argue against the practice of altruistic surrogacy. Instead, it seeks to highlight, through the lens of Social Reproduction Theory, that central to the legal framework is a highly gendered devaluation of labor which undermines the potential for surrogates to fully exercise choice in relation to their gestational labor.

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Access to Reproductive Technology May Be Impeded by Workplace Law and Policy in South Africa

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By Sheetal Soni

In this post, I will consider the position of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) under South African law, as well as the challenges posed by legislation and policy.

Broadly speaking, ARTs have made it possible for people to create and expand their families where this was previously not possible. Obstacles to reproducing include natural barriers such as infertility, or being single or in a same-sex relationship. Options such as gamete donation, surrogacy, intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection and other technologies have allowed infertile individuals to better the odds of reproducing. However, as beneficial as these ART options may be, there are other barriers to creating that family; in South Africa, these barriers include unequal access to treatment, as well as workplace laws and policies that dissuade and discourage people from seeking treatment.

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