The rights of donor inseminated children to know their genetic origins in Australia

Twenty years after it was recognised that adopted children have rights to understand their origins, the dawn has finally broken with respect to children conceived as a result of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), specifically donor insemination (DI). Recipients and practitioners of conception technologies focus their energies and ethical deliberation on the achievement of pregnancy and the successful birth of the child. Law, in contrast, must focus beyond birth to enshrine respect for the rights of the child, who is 'not legally capable of defending [his or her] own future interests.' This article undertakes an assessment of what is in the best interests of a child using empirical studies to ground a position that should be adopted by law in Australia. This article also critically evaluates the current legal position of the various States and Territories with regards to a DI conceived child's rights to know of their form of conception; access to identifying information of their donor; at what age they may access information; the position of DI children born before existing legislation; record-keeping; and finally whether international law grants such children rights. Australian children must enjoy the right in theory and practice to know they were donor conceived and the identity of their donor. It is disappointing that New South Wales, as the most recent State to propose legislation on ART, has not utilised international empirical research on the best interests of DI children or even followed the Infertility Treatment Act 1995 (Vic) which seems to be far more progressive in recognising how best to protect the rights of DI children. The current legal position is chaotic. States and Territories should confer power on the Federal Government to legislate uniform and explicit regulation of ART for the benefit of DI children.     

Keeping mum about dad: "contracts" to protect gamete donor anonymity

This article considers the legal status of so-called contracts for anonymity between fertility clinics and donors of gametes that were made in the period before legislation authorising disclosure. It notes that while clinics frequently cite the existence of these "contracts" to argue against retrospective legislation authorising disclosure of the donor's identity, they may be nothing more than one-sided statements of informed consent. However, the article notes that even if an agreement between a donor and a clinic is not contractual, it does not follow that a person conceived through assisted reproductive technology has any right of access to the identity of the donor. The writer has not been able to locate examples of written promises by the clinics promising anonymity. There are written promises by the donors not to seek the identity of the recipients. These promises do not bind the resulting offspring nor do they appear to be supported by consideration. The article suggests that the basis for any individual donor to restrain a clinic from revealing their identity may be found in promissory estoppel. Nevertheless, there is no real issue in Australia concerning clinics revealing these details absent legislative authority. The issue is whether parliaments will legislate to authorise the disclosure. The article notes that it would be rare for parliaments to legislate to overturn existing legal contracts but suggests that the contract argument may not be as strong as has been thought.     

企业慈善捐赠的法律规制

目前，我国企业慈善捐赠法律规制还不完善，企业慈善捐赠定性没有法律依据、立法上缺乏对捐赠企业及受捐者相关权利保障、企业摊捐劝捐现象随处可见。欲解决这些困境。必须在立法上将企业慈善捐赠纳入社会保障体系，明确捐赠企业与受捐人的合法权利，并对企业摊捐劝捐行为予以规制，引导企业主动捐赠。     

Dodging the Donor Daddy Drama: Creating a Model Statute for Determining Parental Status of Known Sperm Donors

Despite recent innovations in alternative reproduction technology and the increased use of artificial insemination procedures, courts and legislatures have been unable to develop a clear and consistent test to establish the parental rights and obligations of sperm donors. As a result, there are mixed outcomes in cases where intended parents seek child support from an unsuspecting donor or when donors petition the court for visitation with their biological children. This Note seeks to resolve the ambiguity in determining sperm donors’ parental status by proposing a model state statute that makes nonpaternity the default rule. Under the statute, sperm donors would not be subject to any of the parental rights or obligations of a traditional biological father. However, the presumption of nonpaternity could be overcome if the parties agree, in writing, prior to the insemination. Further, the model statute provides an exception to the default rule if the donor has played an active role in the child's life. Adopting this model statute will not only facilitate a market for sperm donation but also make donor rights and obligations clear from the onset.

Key Points for the Family Court Community
• Today, infants born using artificial reproduction technology (ART) represent more than one percent of children born in the United States annually.
• When a donor is anonymous, the law is clear: the donor is not a legal parent. However, the law regarding known donors is less straightforward. Depending on the state and the particular circumstances, the parental status of a known donor is questionable.
• The ambiguity in the law creates confusion and disagreement among the parties in a donor agreement. By comparing factually similar cases, in which courts interpreted donor statutes with identical language, in completely opposite ways, it is easy to see the unpredictability in ART cases.
• The proposed model statute provides unambiguous legislation that sets out a clear standard to be used in determining the parental status of known donors. If adopted by state legislatures, courts across the country would finally have a consistent rule to apply, leading to less confusion and contradictory rulings.
• The key issue is honoring intentional parentage and the proactive choice to use ART to have a child on one's own terms.

     

Psycho-social, ethical and legal arguments for and against the retrospective release of information about donors to donor-conceived individuals in Australia

In the February 2011 report on its inquiry into the past and present practices of donor conception in Australia, the Australian Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee called for the introduction of legislation to regulate donor conception in all jurisdictions that do not have it in place "as a matter of priority". It further called for the establishment, "as a matter of priority", of a national register of donors to enable donor-conceived individuals to access identifying information about their donor. The Senate Committee left open the question as to whether the legislation and central register should have retrospective effect. This article focuses upon that question. It shows that arguments concerning the privacy, confidentiality and anonymity of some donors who may wish to remain anonymous are outweighed by the manifest injustice faced by donor-conceived individuals who are denied access to such information, as well as their families and donors who wish to exchange this information,     

重新认识我国行政组织立法模式

我国行政组织立法模式来源于苏维埃行政法实践,其属于社会主义法系模式,既不同于大陆法系模式,更不同于英美法系模式。这种立法模式的基本特点在于以国家管理机关为中心安排法律结构和法律位阶等级体系的模糊性。在当代中国,我国行政组织立法模式应该进一步完善。首先,以组织法律来构建我国行政组织法律体系是必要的。其次,以宪法为指导,确立行政组织法律主义这一组织法治原则。再次,在既有法律基础上构建我国行政组织立法模式。最后,重视行政组织法与行政管理法或行政作用法的密切联系。     

电子商务立法三题

中性原则是电子商务立法所独有的基本原则，包括技术中性与媒体中性两方面；在不损及现有法律框架的前提下，电子商务宜走统一的、形式意义上电子商务立法的道路，并根据实际情况制定配套的单行法规。根据电子商务的内在要求，电子商务立法应以内含公正的法律效益为其价值取向。加入ＷＴＯ后我国司法解释的法律地位需重新界定。     

Recent developments in medical law

The most spectacular aspect is the extremely rapid expansion of medical law. Even if there is a close connection between developments in medicine and in law, the question must be asked as to what extent new discoveries and advances in medicine play a dominant role here, and to what extent the emphasis is on the further development of law. How advances in medicine can give rise to new legal problems was most impressively demonstrated some time ago by the discussion about cerebral death. In view of the progress made in the field of re-animation and intensive care, the current question is whether or not the physician's duties and rights to maintain life should be limited in hopeless cases when patients are incapable of making decisions themselves. This is demonstrated in particular by the discussion about the binding character of "patient testaments" in which healthy subjects declare that they do not want treatment under such circumstances. The decisive factor will continue to be the presumptive will of the patient at the respective time, and this will have to be ascertained considering all circumstances prevailing at that time. New questions with regard to the ethical and legal limitation of the technically feasible also arise from the possibility of culturing embryos from legal abortions or extracorporally fertilized ova to obtain transplants, and from the possibility of implanting extracorporally fertilized ova into the uterus, perhaps that of a "hired childbearing wet-nurse." In addition to ethical and legal problems, questions of parentage would arise here similar to those already of current interest in connection with artificial heterologous insemination. For physicians practicing these methods, questions concerning liability and the limitation of professional secrecy vis-à-vis the semen donor might become the issue of law suits in the near future. Current problems of "unsuccessful sterilization" and nonperformance of an abortion through the physician's fault although abortion was indicated for eugenic reasons are, on the other hand, primarily due to the fact that the law--possibility even for acceptable reasons--establishes legal obligations for the physician which, in the last analysis, aim at preventing human life from coming into being.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Regulation of Cohabitation, Changing Family Policies and Social Attitudes: A Discussion of Britain Within Europe

This article considers the differing legal and policy responses to the common trends of family restructuring away from marriage within Britain and Europe. Conceding that Europe is in the process of losing heterosexual marriage as a universal epicenter of family law at the very time when legal harmonization within Europe is being promoted, it goes on to explore the best way forward for regulating same- and different-sex cohabiting couples. It concludes that the legal response to these trends should be "de-moralized" but principled. A plurality of legal regulative structures to accommodate the now diverse family forms that are found within our less marriage-centric societies should be put in place providing at least some default protection for all families, yet allowing people to opt out and make their own arrangements.     

Talking in the dark: Rules to facilitate open debate about lawful access to strongly encrypted information

Strong encryption can prevent anybody from accessing user data, including the technology companies responsible for its implementation. As strong encryption technology has become increasingly prevalent, law enforcement agencies have sought legislation to secure continued lawful access to the data affected. Following analysis of the encryption debates in the United States and the United Kingdom, this article will propose three rules that governments should follow to facilitate open debate and prevent the implementation of unsafe lawful access solutions. Firstly, we will provide context on current encryption policy. Secondly, it will be shown that continuous open debate must be facilitated in order to prevent the implementation of unsafe lawful access solutions. Finally, it will be argued that governments should be held to three rules when engaging in debate about lawful access: legislation governing lawful access must state clearly on its face whether decryption can be mandated; the encryption debate must not be oversimplified or reduced to emotive examples in order to secure public support for unsafe solutions; and safeguards on warrants must not be conflated with safeguards on lawful access mechanisms in order to suggest that solutions are safer than is actually the case.     

Human assisted procreation and human rights--the Greek response to the felt necessities of the time

The new reproductive technologies enable otherwise infertile couples to reproduce noncoitally. Problems arising from the new reproductive techniques refer to the persons entitled to have access thereto, to the methods accepted (such as procreation by means of a surrogate mother), to the storage and donation of gametes and embryos, to donor anonymity etc. Although homologous and heterologous insemination and in vitro fertilisation have been performed in Greece for a long time, legal provisions thereon have been established only recently: Law 3089/2002 on assisted procreation builds the respective legal frame, regulating main aspects in this crucial field of interwoven human rights and social duties.     

论中国民事审级制度面临的挑战及其完善

我国现行民事审级制度不是"舶来品",而是经过漫长的演变过程逐渐形成的。现行法上的"四级两审制"民事审级制度在特定历史时期发挥了其应有的作用,但目前已经无法满足人民群众日益增长的接近司法的需求。我国民事审级制度体系的完善应当确立"四级三审制"、增设职能管辖制度、贯彻上诉利益理论、明确第三审为法律审等基本制度,同时建立允许例外情形下基于法定或意定的原因而适用一审终审制度,以及越级上诉制度和特别上诉制度。     

俄罗斯的环境保护与立法权

从20世纪90年代起,俄罗斯开始进行积极的生态立法活动,经过十几年的积累,形成了独具俄罗斯特色的生态法律体系及立法特点,积累了丰富的立法经验。其中关于生态立法一体化以及其他立法的生态化趋向,彰显了俄罗斯生态立法中人与自然和谐统一的生态立法理念和价值诉求。但是,现行俄罗斯生态立法中也存在着立法活动与宪法原则不衔接的问题,而构建协调合理的生态法律体系,必须以能否遵守、实现和维护公民的良好环境享有权作为唯一评判标准。     

The socio-legal acceptance of new technologies: a close look at artificial insemination

Heated debates often surround the introduction of an important new technology into society, as exemplified by current controversies surrounding human cloning and privacy protection on the Internet. Underlying these controversies are disruptions to central socio-legal values caused by these new technologies. Whether new technologies will eventually be accepted by society is often contingent on the reaction of the legal system. This mandates the formulation of a conceptual framework for understanding and structuring the way the law should react in cases surrounding the adoption of new technologies. By using the case study of artificial insemination this Article develops the tools for structuring the legal role in the acceptance process of new technologies. The three-century controversy surrounding the innovation of artificial insemination results from the innovations' disruption of the socio-legal value of the family. Artificial Insemination--although invented in the eighteenth-century--was rarely used until the 1930s, and only legalized in the 1960s. Its application to surrogacy and its use by unmarried women extends the controversy into the twenty-first century. The case study demonstrates the nature of the relationship among the technological, social and legal acceptance processes of new technologies, and analyzes the legal acceptance debate. The conceptual framework produced is useful in understanding and structuring the legal role in current debates surrounding the introduction and acceptance of new technologies.     

Assisted reproductive technologies: professional and legal restrictions in Australian clinics

The professional and legal regulation of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in Australia is a vast maze of intersecting laws and guidelines which place restrictions on the provision of services such as infertility treatment, surrogacy, sex selection for social reasons, donor insemination, pre-implantation diagnosis and human embryo research. This study investigated the application of these restrictions on clinical practice in New South Wales, a relatively unregulated State, and Victoria, a relatively highly regulated State. The results of the survey indicate that the range of ART services in Victorian clinics was far more limited than in New South Wales clinics. The Victorian clinics uniformly restricted access of single and lesbian women and did not offer social sex selection procedures. The New South Wales clinics adopted different polices regarding these services. It was found that restrictive laws governing "social" issues have a significant impact on the availability of ART services and some respondents seemed unclear about the nature of restrictions and laws relevant to their work. It was also found that "reproductive tourism" is prevalent and restrictions were circumnavigated by patients with assistance from clinics. It was concluded that more evidence is required to evaluate regulation in this field of medicine.     

论地方人大的共同立法

为区域合作提供充分的法律资源,必须加强立法协同。其中,对属于地方权限范围、通过其他途径难以解决以及宪法和法律未禁止的事务,经法律上的允许,有关地方人大可以通过协商,共同起草建议稿,分别审议、通过,以各自的文号共同发布地方性法规,即开展地方共同立法。我国宪法体现了有关区域合作的精神、原则,有关法律上存在“协商条款”,但我国目前尚无地方人大共同发布地方性法规的直接法律依据。有需求的地方人大共同制定地方性法规,应取得全国人大常委会的授权。从长远、普遍性需求来看,全国人大常委会应修改我国《立法法》,作出相关明确规定。地方共同法规在内容上按所达成的共识而定。它除了与一般地方性法规相同的必要条款外,还应包括实施主体条款、利益平衡条款、开放性条款、效力条款和纠纷解决条款等特殊条款。     

对中国特色社会主义法律体系的定义

我们要从科技意识形态出发,去构建中国特色社会主义法律体系。它不应当仅仅是主观任意的“部门法体系”而已。它是既有内在逻辑关系又有相对独立的各个部分间构成的系统,即我国的立法体制、现行的规范性法律文件体系和部门法体系的总称。这个法律体系应该既具有世界范围的法律体系的一般性,又具有突出的中国特色:一元性、中国特色社会主义理论的指导性和重在控权性。它生成于后现代,必须适应多元社会和全球经济一体化及科技时代的需要。它是中国法制传统与后现代法文化相融合的集中表现。     

Technology and special needs provision in the UK: is current law satisfactory?

Recently, the government has issued legislation on disability discrimination (the UK Disability Discrimination Act 2005) that is silent on the issue of access to technology for those adults and minors with special needs/disabilities either in the classroom or out of the classroom. At the same time, commercial legislation from Europe drives forward with new directives on the regulation of technology as part of the European Union's Lisbon Goals to make Europe more efficient through the use of Information Communications Technologies (ICTs) and to provide an increasing array of on-line services (payment of taxes, licensing, identity cards, and access to public services). With more rapid provision of public and private services on-line, there is a pressing need to ask to what extent current legislation should address access to assistive technology for those with special needs and disabilities. Furthermore, the legal obligation on government to provide ICTs as communications aids in school classrooms either as an auxiliary aid or service, or as an education and associated service for those who are disabled is unclear under current UK disability discrimination and special needs law. As far as the writer is aware, currently, no study as yet has reviewed disability and SEN legislation to determine what obligations (if any) arise on government to provide communications aids based on ICTs to children with disabilities. And yet, disability remains a central issue.     

Surrogacy,Identity, Parentage and Childrenʼs Rights – Through the Eyes of a Child

In this article I will focus on two important aspects of children's rights which are impacted by artificial reproductive technology (particularly surrogacy); being the rights to identity and the rights to legal parentage. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child acknowledges the importance of a child's right to identity, to be protected from discrimination on the basis of the status or beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians or family members. For many children born through surrogacy arrangements, they may have only one or no legally recognized parent. The adults caring for them may have parental responsibility orders but this falls well short of providing children with the benefits and protections that legal parentage does. The issue of identity can be complex. Increasingly, states have recognized the importance of children knowing the circumstances of their birth and being able to access biological and genetic information including medical information. From a child's perspective the issues of identity and parenthood are intertwined. Given the importance of identity, more needs to be done to ensure that identifying information about children born as a result of artificial reproductive technology is properly stored and readily accessible for these children. Denying a child legal parentage when there are no concerns about the care being provided by their parents cannot be justified when considered from a children's rights perspective.     

行政程序地方先行立法的主体、模式与规范

行政程序地方先行立法具有试验性。作为试验立法,需探讨立法主体、模式和运作规范三个问题。行政程序应该属于中央立法事项,按照“试验立法权逐级下放”原则,应由地方性法规先行立法,地方政府规章先行立法有越权之嫌。试验立法的对象是实体与程序法律规范,不是法的表达形式,选择立法模式应综合考虑可操作性、立法效率与评估可能性等因素。据此,“法典模式”虽备受关注,但未必是最妥帖的方式,行政程序地方先行立法的恰当模式应当是“类行为法模式”。行政程序地方先行立法的自主、自发性在一定程度上导致了无序性,将来可在鼓励地方自主自发立法的基础上,围绕立法计划,由全国人大及其常委会和国务院有计划地安排和推进,并建立相应的运作规范。