Surrogacy law expert Dr Kirsty Horsey is hosting a conference on surrogacy law reform at Kent on Friday (17 November).
The conference, entitled ‘Regulating Surrogacy: Problems and potential solutions’ includes contributions from:
- Dr Noelia Igareda, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain – Socio-legal arguments to legitimize surrogacy and obstacles and criticisms to its regulation: different national laws but common problems
- Dr Pamela White, Kent Law School – “Desperately seeking surrogates”: Thoughts on Canada’s emergence as an international surrogacy destination
- Dr Julie McCandless, London School of Economics – De-ciphering parenthood law for surrogacy: moving beyond two?
- Natalie Smith, trustee of Surrogacy UK and parent via surrogacy – The view from the ground: surrogacy in the UK and the need for legal reform
- Andrew Powell, barrister, 4 Paper Buildings, Temple, London – The view from the Bar: surrogacy in the English courtroom
The conference, sponsored by both the Kent Centre for Law, Gender and Sexuality and the Kent Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Reproduction (CiSoR), is free to attend but registration is required online. Sessions begin at 3pm in the Moot Room in the Wigoder Law Building.
Dr Horsey is a Reader in Law at Kent Law School. She has published widely on issues relating to the regulation of human reproduction and has been actively researching surrogacy law – and advocating reform – for 20 years. She has written a number of articles and book chapters on surrogacy in the UK, including publications in Child and Family Law Quarterly and the Medical Law Review.
A landmark report, written by Dr Horsey in conjunction with Surrogacy UK was published in November 2015. The report, ‘Surrogacy in the UK: Myth busting and reform’, provided an unprecedented insight into how surrogacy is practised in the UK and dispelled a myth that a high proportion of potential parents from the UK go overseas if they need to use surrogacy.
At a previous conference organised by Dr Horsey in May 2016 – Surrogacy in the 21st century: Rethinking assumptions, reforming Law, Baroness Mary Warnock (author of the 1984 Warnock Report – a Report of the Committee of Enquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology) revealed she no longer regarded surrogacy as unethical.
More recently, surrogacy law reform championed by Dr Horsey was featured in a special edition of the Journal of Medical Law and Ethics (JMLE) and was the subject of a debate held in the House of Lords in December 2016.
Dr Horsey is a member of the advisory committee for the Progress Educational Trust (PET), a charity that works to inform debate on assisted conception and genetics. She is also a Contributing Editor for BioNews, a free news and comment digest published by PET. More details of Dr Horsey’s work on surrogacy are available on the Surrogacy Law Reform Project website.
