My project
Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have given rise to new family structures and chronologies. Today, a family can be formed with claims to parenthood, whether based on genetic, gestational, or intentional ties, arising from four or more, as opposed to two, separate parties (so-called multi-parent families). Conversely, families can be formed with no living biological parents, based on non-parental kinships, e.g., grandparenthood (what I term ‘zero-parent’ families). However, the law on parenthood does not always recognize the social reality of these novel families. Across most Western jurisdictions the law on parentage, particularly who can be registered as a parent, continues to reflect a traditional, heteronormative, two-parent, nuclear family structure. ART challenges what the law views as a ‘family’, and more specifically as a ‘parent’ – and who can fulfil this role. What makes a family? This is important because recognising someone as a parent is to recognise a family unit, and, being recognised as a family in law has wide-reaching consequences across many aspects of social and political life. For, law distinguishes families in many contexts, from taxation, social security, and property law to human rights and criminal law. This project explores a practical solution to the challenge posed by ART through designing a framework and tool for birth registration capable of fully reflecting contemporary family formation and family life.
My publications
My Training and conferences
Workshop 1 ART-Equal, Aalborg, April 2024 – Workshop 2 ART-Equal, Leuven, Sept 2024 – Workshop 3 ART-Equal, Reykjavik, 2025
Criminalising Surrogacy, Hong Kong, October, 2024
15 Years of the HCCH Washington Declaration –Progress and Perspectives on International Family Relocation, April, 2025
PR/IR at HCCH’s conference, Brazil, October, 2025
European Researchers’ Night 2025 – Planetarium, Brussels, September 2025
My videos