Actor, comedian and activist: Louisa looks at Rosie O’Donnell

March 1, 2013 By Louisa Ghevaert

Following her articles on President Obama and actor Matt Bomer, Louisa continues to collaborate with Pink Parenting, the world’s number one LGBT parenting magazine. For the February/March issue, out now, Louisa’s cover story looks at the life of Rosie O’Donnell, who recently became a mum for the fifth time. Rosie is a multi-Emmy award-winning actor, comedian and talk show host and a passionate LGBT parenting advocate.

Having spent the early part of her career on the male-dominated stand-up stages of the comedy club circuits, Rosie is no stranger to blazing a trail. As host of the Rosie O’Donnell show from 1996 to 2002, she became a household name but quit the show and celebrity life to spend time with her family. Over the last decade, Rosie has perhaps become America’s most prominent and outspoken advocate for LGBT parenting rights, her opinions informed by the joy and heartbreak she herself has experienced as a gay mum. Louisa’s article looks back at those experiences and celebrates Rosie’s achievements, in having done so much to normalise LGBT family life in the eyes of the American public.

To read the article, click here.

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BBC Radio Interview with Louisa Ghevaert on New NICE Fertility and IVF Guidance

February 20, 2013 By Louisa Ghevaert

Louisa was delighted to be interviewed on BBC Radio Berkshire this morning alongside Professor Winston on new NICE fertility guidance issued today.

NICE guidance recommends for the first time that women aged 40 – 42 should be entitled to one cycle of IVF on the NHS if they’ve tried unsuccessfully for a baby for two years, or undergone 12 cycles of artificial insemination (at least 6 being IUI) or immediate access to IVF if they’ve no chance of achieving a pregnancy provided they’ve never previously had IVF, there’s no evidence of low ovarian reserve and there’s been a discussion about the additional age related implications of IVF and pregnancy.

For women aged under 40, the new NICE guidance recommends they should be entitled to three cycles of IVF on the NHS if they’ve tried unsuccessfully for a baby for two years (reduced from three years under the old guidance) or they’ve undergone 12 cycles of artificial conception (at least 6 being IUI) or immediate access to IVF treatment where there’s no chance of achieving a pregnancy.

These updated guidelines remove the lower age limit, previously 23 years, and brings guidance in line with other equality legislation to facilitate better access to treatment by lesbian couples and single women.  However, the guidance is not mandatory and in the absence of punitive sanctions local healthcare providers will continue to set their own policy using devolved legal powers.  A Parliamentary report in June 2011 found that 73% of PCTs weren’t complying with NICE Guidance, with 39% of PCTs only offering one cycle and 27% only offering two cycles and it confirmed the reality of the IVF Postcode Lottery across the country.

It remains to be seen whether new NICE guidance will make a difference, when PCTs (to be replaced by CCGs in April 2013) are having to balance budgets and make tough spending decisions about healthcare in the current economic climate and are faced with rising costs year on year.  Despite this, there needs to be debate about the priority attributed to infertility (a proven medical condition and legitimate clinical need), standardisation of policy, equality of access and better transparency to bring the current IVF Postcode Lottery to an end and ensure fairer outcomes for fertility patients to end the misery and heartache caused by the current system.

To listen to the story in full, including an interview with an NHS patient who had previously been refused IVF treatment on grounds that she was too young and Professor Robert Winston, as well as Louisa’s interview please click here. To hear the segment with Louisa only, please click here.

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Families of the future: what does new law and policy have in store?

October 10, 2012 By Louisa Ghevaert

Last month, Louisa and I attended the latest Westminster Legal Policy Forum entitled The Future of Family Law. As a specialist in the field of fertility and parenting law, Louisa had been personally invited to attend the event, along with leading academics, charities, family law practitioners and parliamentarians; all authorities in their respective fields. Such forums are intended to provide policy makers with the opportunity to canvass informed opinion that will, in turn, influence the policy making process.

Parenting disputes and shared parenting

Dr Annika Newnham, Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Portsmouth, delivered a thought provoking session on shared parenting. Too often, she says, straightforward family and parenting disagreements descend into a pattern of one-upmanship. Some parents view the court process as a way of validating their position in a parenting dispute, confirming that they are the better parent or punishing their former partner by restricting access to their children. This can reduce court orders, including contact, parental responsibility and residence to symbolic trophies, awarded by a judge following a prolonged legal battle, where the only real losers are the children.

Dr Newnham’s contribution reinforced the need for reform of Family Justice in the UK and the importance of recognising the best interests of children, a point that was reinforced time and again by delegates from the floor.  Nicholas Cusworth QC, Chairman of the Family Law Bar Association, emphasised the need for separating parents to be able to easily access legal advice following a parenting dispute to get to grips with the legal options and begin to resolve parenting arrangements for their children outside the courtroom.

Grandparents

Sam Smethers, Chief Executive of Grandparents Plus, spoke compellingly about the role of grandparents in children’s lives and the need to strengthen their position before the court for the benefit of their grandchildren.  She emphasised the vital role that grandparents can play in supporting their grandchildren following family breakdown and parenting disputes.  Grandparents can provide much needed stability at a time of significant emotional distress for children and parents and increasingly are the linchpin of families post separation.

Solo parents

Philippa Newis, Policy Officer for Gingerbread, gave a powerful insight into the demands and challenges solo mothers and solo fathers face, with limited access to public funding, financial pressures, ongoing parenting disputes, and often little or no support when crisis strikes. Obtaining proper financial provision for a child from a former partner remains a frequent concern and is all too often an uphill struggle.

The future

There is an urgent need for hands on longer-term non-legal solutions and quicker legal intervention when parenting disputes arise and family relationships breakdown.  Forward thinking educational programmes are needed to better equip young adults with the necessary skills to prepare them for the realities of family life in the 21st century.

As family life in the UK is changing rapidly, the legal framework protecting it must also change and adapt. If you would like to discuss your personal situation in more detail or you would like more information about a parenting dispute, the legal rights as a grandparent or solo parent, shared parenting, contact, residence, parental responsibility, legal parenthood, financial provision for a child or parenting and children law please contact us by email fertilityandparenting@porterdodson.co.uk or by telephone +44 (0)207 222 1244.

By Dan Brember, Legal Assistant at Porter Dodson Solicitors & Advisors

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Fertility lawyer Louisa Ghevaert features in TV documentary on private sperm donation

September 18, 2012 By Louisa Ghevaert

Louisa Ghevaert  was delighted to feature in National Geographic’s acclaimed TABOO TV documentary series discussing the legal issues surrounding private sperm donation. The programme covers Ed Houben, Europe’s most prolific sperm donor, and some of the women he has helped become mothers. Click here to see the programme.

Having reached the maximum limit as a sperm donor in The Netherlands, Ed decided to become a private sperm donor.  Ed has so far fathered over 80 children, with another eight women currently pregnant following conception with his sperm.

If you would like to discuss your situation in more detail or you would like more information about the legal issues surrounding sperm donation, donor conception and children and parenting law please email me louisa.ghevaert@porterdodson.co.uk or call +44 (0)207 2221244 or click here for more information.

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Louisa Ghevaert publishes article in Pink Parenting Magazine on whether TV is making same-sex parenting more acceptable

September 17, 2012 By Louisa Ghevaert

Louisa is delighted to feature in Pink Parenting Magazine’s latest edition discussing whether TV is making same-sex parenting more acceptable.  Click here to read the full article.

The article looks at the importance of  TV as an important cultural resource and traces the history of  the portrayal of lesbian and gay relationships on British TV over the last thirty years.  This comes in the wake of the new US TV series, The New Normal, with its storyline featuring a gay couple and surrogacy and other pink families on TV.

If you would like to discuss your personal situation in more detail or you would like more information about the legal issues surrounding same-sex parenting and the creation of your much wanted family including surrogacy, donor conception and children and parenting law please contact louisa.ghevaert@porterdodson.co.uk or call +44 (0)207  2221244.

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Porter Dodson’s pioneering Fertility and Parenting Team has been shortlisted for the Law Society’s 2012 Excellence Award in Innovation

September 11, 2012 By Louisa Ghevaert

We’re delighted to announce that Porter Dodson Fertility and Parenting Team, headed by leading fertility and parenting law specialist Louisa Ghevaert, has been shortlisted for the Law Society’s 2012 Excellence in Innovation Category.

 The Law Society’s annual prestigious awards ceremony recognizes exceptional solicitors, individuals and teams across the entire legal sector.  Winners will be announced at a black tie event on 18 October 2012 at Old Billingsgate, London.

Porter Dodson Fertility and Parenting Team is a world class specialist fertility and parenting law service with a global client base.  It delivers inspirational and groundbreaking legal solutions for fertility patients and families and supports the vital work of fertility clinicians and professionals. Porter Dodson Fertility and Parenting Team protects and educates people as they build families in new ways in the UK and abroad, in the face of restrictive laws and frequent international conflicts of law and strives to improve law and policy in the UK to help the millions of people who battle infertility annually.

Porter Dodson Fertility and Parenting Team has developed a pioneering, free, specialist multi-media fertility and parenting law website www.porterdodsonfertility.com which contains continuously evolving legal information, video, social media, articles and a topical blog aimed at educating and helping fertility patients, clinicians and families across the world. We provide bespoke legal advice and representation for those undergoing international and UK surrogacy, donor conception, parenting and children arrangements including known donation and co-parenting, fertility treatment and children, parenting and family disputes. The practice has also developed an extensive media profile, spearheaded by Louisa Ghevaert, and engages with law and policy makers to improve awareness and develop laws governing assisted reproduction, children and parenting in the UK and abroad. 

Porter Dodson Fertility and Parenting Team’s innovative legal work has won international media recognition on television, radio and in the press including Ukrainian television (Inter-TV), a TV documentary commissioned by the Chinese Government to be aired next month in China looking at IVF and fertility treatment in the West, BBC South Today TV, BBC Radio Somerset, The Telegraph, The Independent, The Daily Mail, The French Tribune, The Portsmouth News and The British Medical Journal - click here for more information.

Porter Dodson Fertility and Parenting Team has over the last 12 months represented Portsmouth couples Donna and Dean Marshall, winning a rare legal battle against Portsmouth City PCT for IVF funding on the NHS in December 2011 and Andrea and Aaron Heywood in their high profile legal battle for IVF treatment on the NHS in June 2012. The team’s head, Louisa Ghevaert, was a speaker and panel moderator at the American Bar Association’s conference in Las Vegas in October 2011 lecturing the world’s leading specialist assisted reproduction lawyers on surrogacy, fertility treatment, IVF, and donor conception law. The team also provided expert legal comment to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics on the ethical aspects of information disclosure in cases of donor conception in May 2012 to help the development of law and policy in this area.

To continue Porter Dodson Fertility and Parenting Team’s groundbreaking and cutting-edge work, the team works tirelessly to help people all over the world create and protect their families.  As interest in surrogacy and assisted reproduction continues to grow, Louisa will in particular be lecturing later this year on international surrogacy law at The Fertility Show at Olympia, London and on fertility treatment and parenthood at Insights 2012 conference for fertility and healthcare professionals.  

If you would like our help please call +44 (0)207 222 1244 or email fertilityandparenting@porterdodson.co.uk.

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The IVF Postcode Lottery Must Stop

July 2, 2012 By Louisa Ghevaert

BioNews has just published an article by Louisa Ghevaert entitled “The IVF Postcode Lottery Must Stop”.  Click here to read the full article.

In the article, Louisa explains that current IVF funding policies by Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) across the country are causing unjustifiable and unlawful discrimination and inequality in terms of access to IVF treatment on the NHS.  The article also highlights the recent publicised cases of 24-year old Andrea Heywood who was deemed to young for IVF treatment and Donna Marshall who was initially refused treatment because her husband had a child from a previous relationship by their local PCT (Louisa represented both women and you can read more about their cases and the media coverage they attracted by clicking here).

In the article, Louisa goes on to call for The Secretary of State for Health to take decisive action to ensure that all PCTs comply with their legal equality duty concerning IVF funding on the NHS and ensure fairer access to treatment for fertility patients.  The current IVF postcode lottery causes untold misery to one in six couples in the UK and it is high time it stopped.

If you would like more information about fertility treatment law and donor conception (including solo parenting, known donation, co-parenting and same-sex parenting) please contact louisa.ghevaert@porterdodson.co.uk or call +44 (0)207 222 1244.

 

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International adoption numbers reach a 15-year low as interest in surrogacy rises

June 29, 2012 By Louisa Ghevaert

The number of international adoptions has reached a 15-year low.  This is partly attributed to growing interest in surrogacy as a family building option, a contracting world economy and increased efforts by some countries to place more children with domestic families.

Statistics from Newcastle University (UK) state that the number of children subject to foreign adoption reached 45,000 in 2004 whilst the number fell to 25,000 in 2011. Specialist adoption lawyers argue that this decline in number is also due to strict international rules known as the Hague Adoption Convention which is designed to regulate international adoption arrangements and prevent child-trafficking and the commodification of children.  This has tightened up international adoption protocols and caused some countries to freeze adoptions from some countries, leaving vulnerable children in need stuck in state care and orphanages.

International adoption can involve an uncertain lengthy wait and a complex legal process. The requirements can be challenging and tough and faced with this reality, increasing numbers of prospective parents are electing to take charge of their family building plans and enter into binding commercial international surrogacy arrangements, which they feel offer greater certainty of a baby at the end of the process.

If you would like to discuss your situation in more detail or you would like more information about the legal issues associated with international adotpion, international or domestic surrogacy or other family building options please email me louisa,ghevaert@porterdodson.co.uk  or call +44 (0)207 222 1244.

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