Fertile Grounds For Dispute

Rapidly changing concepts of the family and advances in reproductive technologies have, in recent years, presented well-publicised and much-discussed problems for legislators worldwide. These include questions of the status of children born other than as the biological issue of two married parents of the opposite sex (illegitimacy); persons in same-sex relationships (same-sex unions); children born with the assistance of a surrogate (surrogacy); and, now, children with genetic material provided by three persons (polygenetic conception). The first birth as a result of polygenetic conception took place in 2016. The child is expected to be free of the gene for Leigh syndrome, which, but for an anonymous female donor of mitochondrial DNA, he would probably have inherited from the female who provided all other DNA not provided by a male contributor. These questions have been answered in different ways in different jurisdictions. In others, they have not even been addressed,