Natalie was delighted to join the American Bar Association’s assisted reproduction law conference on 14 October 2022 to talk about preventing and managing crises in global surrogacy. Joining the panel at the San Diego conference remotely, Natalie delivered a joint talk with leading US assisted reproduction law expert Kim Surratt of Surratt Law in Nevada.
Natalie and Kim encouraged the audience of specialist assisted reproduction lawyers, mainly from the US, to widen their global perspective beyond the US. They ran through a global map of surrogacy, talking about the differences between:
– ‘destination’ countries like the US, Canada, Ukraine and Georgia (where there is a legal framework for surrogacy for some or all parent groups),
– ‘home only’ countries like the UK and South Africa (where there is a legal framework for surrogacy but only for parents connected with that country), and
– ‘unregulated’ surrogacy destinations in which surrogacy happens in the absence of any clear legal framework (including South American countries like Mexico and Colombia).
They compared the costs, risks, pros and cons of the different options available to intended parents, and encouraged the attorneys present to engage with their clients to help them manage the risks and legal issues whatever path they follow, as well as contributing professionally to a productive international discourse about managing surrogacy ethically wherever it happens.
They also shared their experience working at the frontlines of crisis management on international surrogacy during COVID and the Ukraine war.
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