Higher Seminar in family law and medical law: Dobbs and Assisted Reproduction

The Faculty of Law in Uppsala is currently visited by Professor June Carbone, University of Minnesota, who will hold a seminar with the title: Dobbs and Assisted Reproduction

The Dobbs decision, overturning Roe v. Wade, will have a number of effects on assisted reproductive practices in the United States. The first may be a direct impact if states (or Congress) do something they have not yet done and adopt fetal personhood measures. Such laws could end up imposing Italian-type restrictions on IVF, limiting the number of embryos that can be created or requiring the implantation of all fertilized eggs. Second, even without fetal personhood laws, abortion restrictions could also impact surrogacy contracts. Before Dobbs, most surrogacy contracts in US states permitting surrogacy provided for abortion at the election of the intended parents. After Dobbs, it will become more difficult to expressly include or even discuss such terms, despite the fact that the availability of abortion during surrogacy affects not just the fate of embryos, but also the health of the gestational carrier.

But the third and farthest-reaching impact of Dobbs on assisted reproduction is likely to be a reshaping of the law of parenthood. Before Dobbs, married LGBT couples enjoyed broad ability to receive parental recognition.  A number of states may now cut back on these provisions, which recognize parenthood on the basis of intent in the context of ART. In a pre-Dobbs decision, Idaho had already done so, but Dobbs invites many more such reforms.

I predict that the result will be increased fertility tourism, not simply to forum shop for favorable parentage laws but to protect the health of the gestational carrier, as well as greater use of adoption and other legal protections to address legal uncertainty with respect to parentage.  

Please register for seminar and lunch (including any dietary requirements) by 2pm on Monday 29 May to Elizabeth Perry (elizabeth.perry@jur.uu.se).