Fertility Law news

In around half of all couples struggling to conceive, the problem is sperm-related. Around 7% of men are infertile and this figure increases significantly when male subfertility is factored in. There are a number of reasons for male infertility including: sperm production problems, blockages, hormonal problems and sperm antibodies. Male fertility can also be lost or impaired at any point through illness, accident or death. Furthermore, there is increasing medical evidence that men’s sperm... Read More

There is ongoing debate about the limitations of a woman’s ‘biological clock’ and the finite nature of female fertility. However, this is not the full picture. Medical technology is available to freeze ovarian tissue, potentially for decades, and then re-implant it effectively preserving a woman’s fertility and delaying or even reversing menopause. In fact, some medics believe it is possible to re-implant ovarian tissue every decade to enable a woman to conceive with her own eggs into... Read More

The global sperm bank market is thought to be worth $5 billion by 2025. In recent years, changes in law and policy, including equality legislation,[1] and changing attitudes to family building are driving increased demand for sperm in the UK. Thousands of women in the UK need donor sperm every year. Demand increasingly outstrips supply, resulting in growing reliance on imports of ‘Viking’ sperm from Denmark and from the US. Demand for sperm in the UK is fuelled by: Statistics that between... Read More

The case of Y v A Healthcare NHS Trust & The HFEA & Z (by his litigation friend, The Official Solicitor) [2018] EWCOP 18 marks a legal first. In a groundbreaking judgment, the wife’s specialist fertility law team at Vardags won a unique legal ruling from The Court of Protection to extract and store sperm from her dying husband for her posthumous use in treatment. The husband and wife were in the early stages of fertility treatment when he was involved in an accident that caused a... Read More