Natalie was delighted to meet the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, at a reception to celebrate the contribution of the LGBT community to Britain. The event was attended by leading gay and lesbian professionals, business leaders and celebrities, and Natalie was invited in recognition of her championing of UK gay and lesbian families, and her work at the forefront of winning new legal rights for same sex parents conceiving together through donor conception and surrogacy.
Deciding that the time is right to build a family is a defining moment in your life. However, unfortunately this is all too often just the start of a long and difficult journey to parenthood, fraught with many potential problems and pitfalls along the way. Whether you are a single gay man or woman or in a relationship, there is a definite art to building a family and making babies.
The problems
For prospective same-sex parents the obvious biological difficulties create major hurdles to overcome in the baby making process. Decisions inevitably have to be made about sourcing anonymous or known donor sperm, donor eggs, surrogacy or the merits of co-parenting. The wrong decision at the outset can lead to all manner of problems further down the line.
Many people are often short of time, lack peace of mind about their choice or feel overwhelmed by the different options for creating a family. Issues of, timing, cost, treatment and general logistics can lead to knee jerk decisions, wasted time and money, legal complications and a lot of heartache.
Take for example John, a successful marketing consultant, who’s always wanted a family of his own and feels the time is right to get started. What are his options as a single gay man? He could adopt, co-parent with a female friend, consider surrogacy in the UK or abroad or get himself a partner with children. However, there is so much to get to grips with in terms of understanding the fertility sector as a whole, knowing the fertility treatment options and tackling the often complex underlying legal issues. John simply doesn’t know where to start and he doesn’t want to mess things up. His concerns often keep him awake at night and are stopping him from taking the plunge.
Solutions
John should be encouraged to know that he isn’t alone in his wish to build a family and there is good quality of advice and information out there if he knows where to look. Once he appreciates the bigger picture and takes more control, family building and baby making becomes easier. So, what are some of the basics John should think about?
Navigating the fertility and parenting sector
John would benefit enormously from a greater understanding of how the law works. John needs to get clear in his own mind whether he wants parental autonomy or whether he would be happy to share parenting and if so the degree of his involvement on a day to day basis.
John then needs to think about the practicalities of achieving his goal. He will need to understand better the wide range of services available in the fertility and parenting sector. These include UK licensed fertility clinics, the issues surrounding informal conception, the role of the not-for-profit organisations in the UK including Infertility Network UK, Donor Conception Network, COTS, Surrogacy UK, the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), the framework surrounding fertility treatment in the UK and options if he were to build a family abroad.
If John decides that conception is the way to go, understanding the basic different fertility treatment options is key. It may be stating the obvious, but no one is born knowing the difference between IVF, IUI, ICSI, straight or host surrogacy, and it makes sense to take a little time to explore these at the outset. This can help John to gather more information and medical help and support with better efficiency.
Underlying legal issues
John shouldn’t be fooled into thinking that everything will be straightforward legally. Building a family through assisted conception often creates a legal minefield. The law isn’t always logical and he really does need to understand the legal basics, including legal parenthood, parental responsibility, issues of citizenship and the importance of family-proofing his Will.
Having a family is no longer the preserve of straight couples. Time have changed and with recent improvements to the law there are now more options than ever to build a family and become a parent. You just need to know how to go about it in the right way.
For more information on our family building service see our website.
The UK’s first fertility law firm opens for business today. Founded by high profile fertility lawyer Natalie Gamble and parenting lawyer Louisa Ghevaert, Gamble and Ghevaert LLP is the first solicitors’ firm in the UK to specialise exclusively in fertility and parenting law. The new niche firm will offer leading expertise to parents conceiving through fertility treatment and in non-traditional family structures.
“The law in this area is complex and much of it brand new” say Natalie and Louisa. “There are growing numbers of parents starting or structuring their families in unusual ways including families with more than two parents, same sex parents, children conceived using frozen embryos or donor gametes or the help of a surrogate. They need legal experts who can provide sensitive, cutting edge advice on difficult and often unprecedented legal questions, both about conception and later parenting issues.”
Natalie Gamble is widely known as a leading fertility lawyer and was a prominent commentator on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008. She has passionately championed the rights of fertility patients, and was last year nominated by gay rights organisation Stonewall as a Hero of the Year for her work supporting the new rights for gay and lesbian parents. Louisa Ghevaert is an experienced family law litigator, who brings to the firm a wealth of experience of dealing with parenting disputes.
“Our launch of Gamble and Ghevaert LLP is timely” say Natalie and Louisa. “ The new parenthood rules have just come into force, and the rest of the Act is due to take effect later this year. It’s a time when patients need guidance on how the law affects them.”
As part of the launch, Natalie and Louisa unveil the Gamble and Ghevaert website today (www.nataliegambleassociates.co.uk). The first comprehensive resource of its kind, it contains a wealth of information about fertility and parenting law and looks sure to become a staple resource for patients and parents.
“Increasing public knowledge and understanding of fertility and parenting law issues is all part of our passion for our subject” say Natalie and Louisa. “We are immensely excited to be launching the first fertility law firm in the UK and we will do all we can to help improve the lot of parents and fertility patients.”