ABSTRACT
This is a particularly contentious area of law, with much of the discussion polarised into two camps: the pro-choice and the pro-life camps. Because advances in reproductive medicine are proceeding at a great pace, the law has struggled to keep up and this has allowed the development of possible lacunae in the legal regulation, which has allowed the pro-life campaigners to raise a number of legal challenges in the last few years. Apart from the common law, the main statutes relevant to reproductive law are the Abortion Act 1967, the Surrogacy Arrangements Act 1985 and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (HFEA 1990). The Offences Against the Person Act 1861, the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1921, the Congenital Disabilities (Civil Liability) Act 1976 and the Human Reproductive Cloning Act 2001 are also relevant. Most recent is the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Deceased Fathers) Act 2003 (HFEA 2003), which allows a deceased sperm donor, providing certain conditions are satisfied, to be named on the birth certificate as the child’s father.
