ABSTRACT
Human assisted reproduction is a relatively new area of law, since the underlying techniques are also relatively new. The term, commonly abbreviated to HAR, covers artificial insemination by a donor (AID) or by the mother’s husband (AIH), also in vitro fertilisation (IVF), gamete intra-fallopian transfer (GIFT), egg and embryo donation and surrogacy. Surrogacy, whereby a woman carries a foetus for commissioning parents to whom she means to hand the baby when born, may be full (ie, involving both egg and sperm donation by the commissioning parents and IVF) or partial surrogacy (more common) where the surrogate is fertilised with the commissioning father’s sperm. This inevitably involved questions of legal parentage when the practice became established and the legal issues were given detailed consideration by the Warnock Committee (see below).
