Events

Passport to Parenthood: The Evidence and Ethics Behind Cross-Border Reproductive Care

Progress Educational Trust
Institute of Child Health, University College London, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, UK
24 November 2010 -

Left to right: Sarah Norcross, Sally Sheldon
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts
See other photographs of this event below

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The 2010 annual conference of the Progress Educational Trust (PET), supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Merck Serono.

Cross-border reproductive care - popularly referred to as 'fertility tourism' - is the booming phenomenon of individuals and couples travelling overseas for fertility treatment.

One motivation for this is the UK's acute shortage of donor sperm and eggs, resulting in long waiting lists for treatment at home. Another factor is the ability to circumvent UK fertility regulation in favour of more permissive regimes, which allow the use of sperm and eggs from anonymous donors (prohibited in the UK since 2005) or the transfer of multiple embryos to fertility patients (deprecated in the UK). There may also be more mundane reasons for receiving fertility treatment abroad, such as better quality of service, or the simple possibility of combining treatment with a holiday.

This PET discussion conference will explore every aspect of cross-border reproductive care. Researchers investigating the scale and causes of the phenomenon will present their findings, while experts from various disciplines will offer contrasting perspectives on the ethical, practical and legal ramifications. In the PET tradition, following introductory presentations the bulk of each session's running time will be devoted to soliciting questions and comments from the audience.

Ultimately, the conference will ask whether cross-border reproductive care is best understood as a problem, or as a solution to a problem.

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Session 1

The Evidence Behind Cross-Border Reproductive Care

Introductions

• Transnational reproduction: UK patient perspectives
  Lorraine Culley
  Professor of Social Science and Health and Associate Director of the Mary Seacole Research Centre at De Montfort University, and Principal Investigator of the Transnational Reproduction project

• What do we actually know about cross-border reproductive care in Europe?
  Dr Françoise Shenfield
  Clinical Lecturer in Infertility and Honorary Lecturer in Medical Ethics at University College London's Medical School, and Coordinator of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology's Cross-Border Reproductive Care Taskforce

Chair

• Sally Sheldon
  Professor of Medical Law and Ethics at the University of Kent's Law School, and Chair of the Research and Ethics Committee at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service

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Session 2

Who Oversees Overseas?

Introductions

• Global family building: the legal issues and pitfalls for families conceived through cross-border fertility treatment
  Natalie Gamble
  Partner at Gamble and Ghevaert

• Regulating reproductive tourism: the ethics of coerced conformity
  Zeynep Gürtin-Broadbent
  Research Fellow at the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge, and Convener of the Cambridge Interdisciplinary Reproduction Forum

• A whistle-stop tour of European law and regulation
  James Lawford-Davies
  Partner at Lawford Davies Denoon, and Adviser to PET

• The HFEA: what could we do and what should we do?
  Juliet Tizzard
  Head of Policy at the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, Founder of BioNews and former Director of PET

Chair

• Dr Evan Harris
  Adviser to PET, and former Member of Parliament for Oxford West and Abingdon

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Session 3

Having a Child: How Far Should You Go?

Introductions

• Referral abroad: the last resort for patients?
  Stuart Lavery
  Director and Person Responsible of IVF Hammersmith, and Adviser to PET

• Eggsploitation: what kind of transaction is egg donation?
  Professor Naomi Pfeffer
  Honorary Fellow at University College London's Department of Science and Technology Studies

• The politics of unease
  Janet Radcliffe Richards
  Professor of Practical Philosophy at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics in the University of Oxford's Faculty of Philosophy

Chair

• Lord Naren Patel
  Crossbench Peer, and Vice-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Infertility and Maternity

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Session 4

Cross-Border Reproductive Care: A Problem or a Solution?

The conference will conclude with a discussion that recapitulates points from earlier sessions, and asks whether cross-border reproductive care is best thought of a problem, or as a solution to a problem.

Speakers

• Lorraine Culley
  Professor of Social Science and Health and Associate Director of the Mary Seacole Research Centre at De Montfort University, and Principal Investigator of the Transnational Reproduction project

• Natalie Gamble
  Partner at Gamble and Ghevaert

• Zeynep Gürtin-Broadbent
  Research Fellow at the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge, and Convener of the Cambridge Interdisciplinary Reproduction Forum

• Stuart Lavery
  Director and Person Responsible of IVF Hammersmith, and Adviser to PET

• Professor Naomi Pfeffer
  Honorary Fellow at University College London's Department of Science and Technology Studies

• Janet Radcliffe Richards
  Professor of Practical Philosophy at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics in the University of Oxford's Faculty of Philosophy

• Dr Françoise Shenfield
  Clinical Lecturer in Infertility and Honorary Lecturer in Medical Ethics at University College London's Medical School, and Coordinator of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology's Cross-Border Reproductive Care Taskforce

Chair

• Dr Allan Pacey
  Senior Lecturer in Andrology at the University of Sheffield's Medical School

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At lectern: Professor Marcus Pembrey
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts

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At lectern: Professor Lorraine Culley
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts

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At lectern: Dr Françoise Shenfield
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts

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Professor Sally Sheldon
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts

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Left to right: Natalie Gamble, Sarah Norcross
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts

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At lectern: Zeynep Gürtin-Broadbent
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts

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At lectern: James Lawford-Davies
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts

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At lectern: Juliet Tizzard
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts

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Left to right: Natalie Gamble, Dr Evan Harris and James Lawford-Davies
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts

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Stuart Lavery
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts

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At lectern: Professor Janet Radcliffe Richards
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts

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Lord Naren Patel
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts

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Dr Allan Pacey
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts

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Left to right: Danielle Hamm, Dr Tessa Homfray
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts

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Left to right: Professor Marcus Pembrey, John Parsons, Sarah Norcross
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts