EU flags in front of European Commission in Brussels.

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

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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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

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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