Medico-Legal Aspects of Reproduction and Parenthood

With extensively revised and updated statute and case law, this second edition examines the legal, medical and ethical issues surrounding reproduction and the parental relationship with the resultant child.

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Those involved in family and sexual relationships today face a bewildering variety of medico-legal dilemmas. These are encountered from as early as the preconception state of the embryo and continue throughout the period of child raising until the status of the mature minor is achieved. This book dissects a wide range of legal, medical and ethical issues surrounding reproduction and the parental relationship with the resultant child. Questions posed in the various sections include: what constitutes sexual intercourse, what are the implications of contraception and sterilization, is the abortion issues dead?. Is there a right to reproduce and, if so, how is this applied to the modern methods of assisted reproduction?. Is surrogate motherhood acceptable or workable?. The concept of fetal rights is explored and specific attention is given to the management of defective neonates in the light of recent judicial decisions. Other chapters look at the parent/child relationship in respect of medical treatment and the book concludes with a review of the interfamilial protection of young children under both the civil and the criminal law. Many of the views expressed are novel in that they represent those of a medical doctor exploring the legal field. It is neither a conventional book on family law nor one on medical law; rather, it draws on both to examine a specific area which affects both in a particularly significant way. Both statute and case law have been extensively updated since the publication of the first edition.