Tag: Surrogacy

Close up of surgery team operating.

Access to Uterus Transplantation and the Workplace

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By Natasha Hammond-Browning

Uterus transplantation first hit the headlines in 2014, with the birth of the first baby born following a uterus transplant. This first birth in Sweden has led to trials worldwide. Most recently, in August 2023, the United Kingdom saw its first uterus transplant. In the United States, the University of Alabama (UAB) Medicine uterus transplant program is the first program to offer uterus transplantation outside of a clinical trial, and the first birth in that program was in May 2023.

While recent estimates of future uterus transplants are relatively small — for instance, Womb Transplant UK estimates that between 20-30 uterus transplants could be performed annually — the increasing number of uterus transplant recipients should not be ignored. In particular, questions of access and the workplace rights of those undergoing this surgery are important to consider. This post will briefly lay out some of the issues that may arise for potential recipients and their partners in the workplace.

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Scales with the center depicted as an egg being fertilized through ivf.

Surrogacy and Employment Rights in the UK    

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By Zaina Mahmoud and Kirsty Horsey

At the end of March 2023, the Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission published their joint Report, Building Families Through Surrogacy: A New Law, outlining recommendations for a new regulatory regime governing surrogacy in the UK, including a new route to (legal) parenthood for intended parents (IPs), referred to as “the new pathway” (para 1.10). Chapter 15 of the Report provides an overview of the consequential impact of surrogacy on other areas of law — most relevantly here, employment law.

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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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EU flags in front of European Commission in Brussels.

Surrogacy and the Workplace: Maternity, Paternity, and Parental Leave in the European Union

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By Marianna Iliadou

In surrogacy, a woman (surrogate) gestates a child for a (different/same-sex) couple or single person (intended parents [IPs]). This can generate issues in the workplace: for example, IPs may be unable to secure leave after the birth of the surrogate-born child, as maternity leave is traditionally linked to gestation and childbirth. In this blog post, I will examine maternity, paternity, and parental leave within the European Union (EU) and its applicability to surrogacy. While EU maternity leave policy regarding surrogacy has not seen developments since 2014, recent developments concerning paternity leave bring the topic back to the fore.

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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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Red and White Lines of barrier tape.

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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Woman injecting hormones into her abdomen to stimulate follicles for IVF.

Parental Leave Has Proven It Works — It Is Time to Talk About Assisted Reproduction Leave

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By Dafni Lima

A series of legal rules are designed to ensure that, when welcoming a child, parents are given the protection and support they need in relation to work. The same cannot be said for those dealing with challenges unique to assisted reproduction. This post argues that the protective rationale of parental leave should be extended to address the needs for those undergoing fertility treatment in the form of a new “assisted reproduction leave.”

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A Professional In Vitro Fertilisation Microscope with A Monitor in Background

Introduction to the Symposium: Reproductive Technologies and Workplace Equality

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By Victoria Hooton and Elizabeth Chloe Romanis

Decisions about whether and how to reproduce are some of the most intimate and personal choices individuals and/or couples can make. For people struggling with involuntary childlessness, attempting to become a parent can involve some particularly complex decision making about technological assistance. Inevitably, these decisions touch upon all aspects of a person’s life. Their employment is no exception. People’s working status and working conditions, set against the broader context of their social circumstances, can have a huge influence on what decisions they feel able to make. This is particularly relevant for people who, for biological, social, or psychosocial reasons, need to use assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) to reproduce.

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Austin, TX, USA - Oct. 2, 2021: Participants at the Women's March rally at the Capitol protest SB 8, Texas' abortion law that effectively bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

The Impact of Criminal Abortion Bans on Assisted Reproduction in the Post-Dobbs Landscape

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By Yvonne Lindgren

In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, the constitutional floor that had protected the abortion right for nearly fifty years, and returned the issue of regulating abortion to the states. In the post-Dobbs landscape, thirteen states have banned abortion, either through laws passed after the decision, through trigger laws, or by reviving pre-Roe era abortion bans. As a result of criminalizing abortion, the protective function of medical malpractice law is supplanted by provider and institutional decision-making driven by the imperative to avoid criminal liability and loss of licensure. This essay argues that abortion bans have made all reproductive health care less safe, and that these new pregnancy-related dangers will disproportionately impact assisted reproduction, because those who conceive through assisted reproduction often face a higher risk of complications needing medical intervention, and because women may be reluctant to act as surrogates in light of the heightened risk of pregnancy.

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