The thesis explores the impact of the new Children’s Act 38 of 2005 on the acquisition of parental responsibilities and rights within a newly proposed framework designed for the purpose of reflecting the various ways in which parental responsibilities and rights can be acquired. The research has shown that the Children’s Act has fundamentally transformed the way in which parental responsibilities and rights are acquired. The transformation has created a scheme for the acquisition of parental responsibilities and rights that is for the most part constitutionally compliant and progressive insofar as it gives recognition to the different family forms found in South Africa. To this end the Children’s Act has considerably expanded the ways in which parental responsibilities and rights can be acquired. Whereas previously exclusively the preserve of heterosexual married parents in a nuclear family, parental responsibilities and rights can now automatically be acquired by a committed biological father and a married lesbian couple conceiving by artificial means. Apart from authorising courts to assign parental responsibilities and rights, the Children’s Act allows any holder of parental responsibilities and rights to confer responsibilities and rights on another by prior approved agreement. The Act also includes specific provisions to regulate the acquisition of parental responsibilities and rights by commissioning parents in the case of a surrogate motherhood agreement. The structure developed for the research topic reflects the transformation of the law in this regard by making the application of the best interests-standard, rather than the marital status of the child’s parents, the distinguishing feature of the subdivision between automatic and assigned acquisition. In this way the structure is an embodiment of the paramountcy of the best interests principle in section 28(2) of the Constitution. Insofar as the law still requires a distinction to be made between biological mothers and fathers, on the one hand, and naturally and artificially conceived children, on the other, the structure also highlights the remaining shortcomings of the law in this regard. The structure is, furthermore, necessarily complicated by the need to distinguish between the acquisition of care, on the one hand, and guardianship, on the other. As far as fathers are still not treated the same as mothers in the automatic allocation of parental responsibilities and rights, the Act is deemed not to have been progressive enough. Conferring full parental responsibilities and rights on both parents based on their biological link to the child would not only be in line with worldwide trends, but would also meet the constitutional demands of substantive sex and gender equality. It will further place the focus on the best interests of the child, which emphasises the importance of both parents for the child. While the research shows that tensions between the biological and social constructs of parenthood may possibly hamper the legal recognition of de facto care-givers or other persons with whom the child has developed a psychological bond, the greatest weakness of the Act would seem to lie in the failure to implement an integrated family court structure. Please cite as follows: Louw, AS 2009, Acquisition of parental responsibilities and rights, PhD thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewedyymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-09102009-170707/ > Copyright / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Private Law / unrestricted

The main subject of this master thesis is the issue of surrogacy in the Czech Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany. At the beginning, this thesis aspires to define the term surrogacy in general as well as other connected terminology, and subsequently to specify its categories and describe its major historic milestones. Afterwards, it deals with the rather brief Czech legislation concerning this institute and the consequences this has inevitably led to. It also concentrates on the methods of the assisted reproduction which help to put the surrogate motherhood into practice. This thesis does include ethical problems of surrogacy and some of the psychological and sociological aspects as well. Consequently, it summarizes sanctions which may arose as a result of surrogacy. After that, it explains the legislation related to this issue in the Federal Republic of Germany, its history and legal limits. It deals with the German sanctions which the realization as well as mere arrangement may be subjected to. It examines the standpoint of the German legislator regarding the right of a child to know his or her origin including its consequences, such as non-anonymous sperm donation and obligation of the legal parents to undergo a DNA test. It describes most recent demands of the society regarding the new...

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2017-03-03T15:48:43Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Ida Beatriz de Luca_.pdf: 5910574 bytes, checksum: 2b2ca8a5fa1f0adb7cd1dd025ef08b76 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-03T15:48:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ida Beatriz de Luca_.pdf: 5910574 bytes, checksum: 2b2ca8a5fa1f0adb7cd1dd025ef08b76 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-01-05 / Nenhuma / O Direito Contratual passou por diversas fases, estando inserido em um contexto onde cada vez mais a técnica traz desafios aos operadores do Direito. Através das cláusulas gerais há a possibilidade de incorporação de situações novas, possibilitando o ajustamento das consequências jurídicas a esses novos fatos sociais. O objetivo geral da tese foi estudar o contrato na realidade atual, especialmente quanto à questão da autonomia privada nos contratos de gestação de substituição, vinculado aos princípios constitucionais, no âmbito das possibilidades jurídicas trazidas pelo horizonte hermenêutico da comparação entre o Direito Brasileiro e o Direito dos Estados Unidos da América. O papel do intérprete passou a ser mais significativo, delimitando o alcance da norma através da interpretação, buscando o significado de algumas expressões tal como função social, na Constituição Federal e no diálogo com outras fontes do Direito. Na perspectiva da metodologia fenomenológico-hermenêutica que sustenta esta Tese, se pode afirmar que o intérprete tem cada vez mais responsabilidade pela atribuição criativa de sentido às cláusulas gerais que estão nos textos regulatórios pertinentes. A evolução da técnica trouxe novos desafios aos operadores do Direito. Neste contexto, a ausência de legislação no Brasil para os casos de gestação de substituição gera situações problemáticas para todos os envolvidos: a gestante de susbtituição, os pais intencionais e mesmo a comunidade médica. Diante da referida ausência legislativa para regular as relações dessa natureza, o Conselho Federal de Medicina editou uma resolução restringindo o Direito das partes envolvidas nestes acordos. A hipótese apresentada está na ressignificação da autonomia privada das partes envolvidas nos acordos de gestação de substituição, resguardando a dignidade da pessoa humana nessas relações contratuais, bem como os Princípios Fundamentais do Direito, alinhando ainda o Sistema Constitucional e o Sistema Internacional dos Direitos Humanos, relacionados ao tema, no panorama da fusão de horizontes entre o Direito Nacional e Direito Estrangeiro. Concluiu-se que tal resolução não pode restringir Direitos Fundamentais Individuais constitucionalmente protegidos, tal como o direito de liberdade, que neste caso pode ser entendido como a livre escolha de querer gestar um embrião para outra pessoa. Com relação ao Direito Contratual brasileiro, o modelo de contrato que mais se aproxima aos acordos de gestação de substituição é o contrato de prestação de serviços, porém destaca-se que neste caso existem peculiaridades a serem observadas em decorrência do tipo de atividade que será prestada. Em razão disso, há necessidade de avaliar a real autonomia da vontade da futura gestante de substituição, uma vez que existe Direito de Personalidade envolvido neste negócio jurídico. Neste sentido, a legislação pátria tem permitido uma relativização do caráter de indisponibilidade dos Direitos de Personalidade o que demonstra serem plenamente lícitos os contratos de gestação de substituição, mesmo de caráter oneroso, desde que as partes estejam exercendo sua real autonomia privada. Objetivando a criação de um modelo normativo de contrato de gestação de substituição para a ser utilizado no Brasil, foi efetuado um estudo de direito comparado utilizando-se a legislação e a análise de casos em três Estados dos Estados Unidos da América, buscando na experiência do Direito alienígena a possibilidade de, através do diálogo entre as fontes de direito estrangeiras estudadas e as fontes de direito brasileiras, construir um modelo jurídico para regular as gestações de substituição no Brasil. O modelo normativo sugerido engloba a necessidade de verificação da real autonomia privada da mulher que irá gestar o embrião através de avaliação médica e psicológica, acompanhamento por advogado na elaboração do contrato em razão da natureza dos direitos envolvidos nesse tipo de negócio jurídico, e ainda homologação judicial do acordo, a serem realizados antes do início da execução do contrato. Essas regras foram extraídas da fusão dos modelos normativos dos EUA no sentido de encontrar uma melhor solução para a realidade brasileira. / The Contract Law has adjusted throughout history, being today inserted in an environment where faster technological evolution brings remarkable challenges for its interpreters. General clauses usually allow the definition of legal consequences to new situations and social facts. The general goal of this this thesis was to study the contract under actual and current reality, especially regarding the private autonomy in surrogate motherhood contracts, linked to constitutional principles, in the scope of the legal possibilities brought by the hermeneutic horizons of comparing the Law in Brazil and in the United States of America. The role of the interpreter has been more important establishing the scope and extension of the legal norm via interpretation, looking for the meaning of expressions such as “social function” in the Federal Constitution and through dialogue with other sources of Law interpretations. Under the phenomenological hermeneutic methodology applied to this thesis, it is possible to affirm that the interpreter has increased responsibilities attributing creative meaning to the general clauses existent in the regulatory texts. Recent technology developments have brought new challenges to the Law operators. In this new context, the lack of legal regulations in Brazil for cases of surrogate motherhood poses problematic situation for all parts: the surrogate pregnant, the intended parents and even the medical professionals. Due to the absence of legal framework to regulate the relations involved in such technique, the Federal Council of Medicine published a resolution restricting the rights of potential parts involved in such agreements. Nevertheless, such resolution cannot restrict constitutionally protected Fundamental Individual Rights, such as the right to liberty, which in this case can be interpreted as the right to elect to generate an embryo for another person. The hypothesis is a re-evaluation of the private autonomy of involded parts in agreements of surrogate motherhood, protecting the human dignity in these contractual relations, as well as the fundamental principles of the Law, aligning the Constitutional System and the International Huma Rights System, related to the subject, in the landscape of combined horizons of National Law and Foreign Law. Concerning the Brazilian Contract Law, the closest “contractual model” for a surrogate motherhood is the “rendering services contracts”, however it is important to mention that some peculiarities must be considered due to the specific type of services being rendered. Because of this, the actual private autonomy of the future pregnant must be evaluated, since there are Personality Rights also involved in such legal agreement. As a rule, in Brazil, Personality Rights cannot be relinquished. However, in some existing cases, this rule can be relativized, which demonstrates that such agreements can be licit, even those involving payments to the pregnant, as long as the parts private autonomy have been clearly established. To develop a normative model for surrogate motherhood to be used in Brazil, a research was conducted in three states of the United States of America. The objective is to help to build a legal framework for surrogate motherhood in Brazil based on both foreign and Brazilian sources of law. The suggested legal framework prescribes that the actual private autonomy of the woman to become pregnant must be verified through the following: medical and psychological evaluation; legal advice on the contract wording due to the nature of involved right; and court homologation of the agreement, prior to its execution. Such framework is derived from a combination of norms in the United States of America, properly adjusted to better fit the local realities in Brazil.

Bioethics and law for what and whom? Discussions about the Regulation of assisted reproductive techniques in ColombiaThe recent concern for the normative regulation of assisted reproduction techniques (ART), raises discussions about how to manage the embryos, how many times to use a sample, how to define parenthood, and other issues. However, it has not been questioned who would be favouredwith these regulations and what is their contribution to social equity and development for an entire country. Considering that the urgency to guarantee the sexual and reproductive rights —theoretical framework invoked to require ART— should be aimed at reaching a fair society.The proposed analysis will be undertaken considering the case of applying the ART for surrogate mothers in Colombia. The paper presents the context in which it is intended to apply the normative regulation, alongside the review of some conceptual and empirical contributions by Michael Sandel concerning trends in surrogate motherhood among «developed» and «third world» countries. This should allow considering the profiles of fertility in Colombia as a sign of inequality in our country.Subsequently, we will approach the current legal discussion in Colombia concerning surrogate motherhood, from the only case of surrogate motherhood resolved by the Colombian Constitutional Court and the bill projects presented in the Colombian Congress to regulate this issue. Finally,we will present some reflections and discussion on the normative regulation of the ART and surrogate gestation, and the law as a transmission belt of varied interests, that is, that it ought to lead to common good, solidarity and cooperation, and not simply function as a regulator that ensures the fulfilment of contracts. / Las recientes preocupaciones por la regulación normativa de las técnicas de reproducción humana asistida (TRHA) suscitan especialmente discusiones sobre cómo administrar los embriones, cuántas veces usar una muestra, cómo definir la filiación, entre otros. Sin embargo, no se ha cuestionado directamente a quienes estaría amparándose con estas regulaciones y cuál sería su contribución a la equidad social y al desarrollo de todo un país, pues la urgencia de salvaguardar los derechos sexuales y reproductivos —marco teórico invocado para exigir la regulación de las TRHA— debe apuntar necesariamente a la consecución de una sociedad menos desigual.El análisis propuesto será abordado a partir del caso de la aplicación de las TRHA para la maternidad subrogada en Colombia. En el artículo se presenta inicialmente el contexto en el cual se pretende la regulación de la maternidad sustitutiva, revisando algunos aportes conceptuales y empíricos de Michael Sandel sobre las tendencias de la maternidad subrogada entre los países «desarrollados» y los del «tercer mundo», para luego ver los perfiles de fecundidad en Colombia, como una muestra de la inequidad existente en el país.Posteriormente, se hará una aproximación al debate jurídico existente en el país, a partir del único caso de maternidad sustitutiva resuelto por la Corte Constitucional Colombiana y los proyectos de ley que han sido presentados en el país como intentos de regulación de esta materia. Finalmente, se llevarán a cabo algunas reflexiones y discusiones sobre la regulación normativa de las TRHA y la gestación sustitutiva, para que el derecho opere como verdadera correa de transmisión de variados intereses sociales1, es decir, que conduzca más bien hacia el bien común, la solidaridad y la cooperación, y no actúe como un simple regulador que asegure el cumplimiento de los contratos.

Surrogacy in case law of the Supreme and Constitutional Court Abstract This diploma thesis deals with the phenomenon of surrogacy and places the topic and its aspects into the context of up-to-date social background, legal theory and practice and case law of the Supreme and Constitutional Court. The aim of this thesis is to provide a summary of all available theoretical and practical understanding of the matter, analysis of relevant case law and illustration of both legal and factual issues concerning surrogacy in the Czech republic for the reader to be able to form a comprehensive understanding of the matter, taking into account its interdisciplinarity. Keywords Surrogacy, surrogate motherhood, assisted reproduction, parenthood, best interests of the child, right to family and family life

This master thesis deals with the issue of legislation of surrogacy. Development in the area of reproductive medicine as the first "test tube baby" in 1978 and following medical progress has inevitably brought development expansion of this institute. This institute, although that it brings with itself many ethical, social and legal questions, is not legally regulated in the Czech Republic (except one provision, Art. 804 of the Civil Code). Therefore, this master thesis tries to provide a proposal of legislation which might be adopted in the Czech Republic, using primarily analytical and comparative methods. After the surrogacy is explained and forms and models of it are described, the international framework is clarified. Although many states realize actuality of this topic, there has not been any international legislation adopted that would regulate e.g. surrogate tourism, until this day. However, there is a certain guideline, namely the interest of a child, as the European Court of Human Rights judged. State's legislations range on the scale from criminalization (France) to legalization of its commercial form (Ukraine). After evaluation of legislation of some states whose regulations show real functioning of models of surrogacy, it is clear that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern...

La lourdeur de la procédure française d'adoption, ainsi que la baisse du nombre d'enfants adoptables ne permettent pas de répondre à la demande d'enfant des candidats à l'adoption. Ces derniers se rendent alors à l'étranger chercher ce qu'ils ne trouvent pas en France. Or, le recours aux filiations électives étrangères (adoption internationale ou maternité pour autrui) conduit les candidats à l'adoption ou les couples intentionnels français à conclure de nombreux contrats. On assiste alors à une véritable contractualisation des filiations électives, qui se développe en France, contre toute attente, le droit tentant de maintenir l'état et la capacité des personnes en dehors de la sphère contractuelle. L' étude de l'autonomie de la volonté dans les filiations électives met ainsi en parallèle, et parfois en opposition, plusieurs intérêts: celui des parents électifs ou biologiques, celui de l'enfant, mais aussi celui de l 'Etat qui entend préserver certains principes comme l'indisponibilité du corps humain ou l'état des personnes. La conciliation de ces différents intérêts doit donc passer par la mise en place d'un cadre juridique. Toutefois, dans un contexte de mondialisation (forum et law shopping, etc.), le problème de la réglementation de l'expression de la volonté dans les filiations électives entraine d'autres difficultés telles que la qualification juridique des accords conclus dans le cadre de l'adoption ou dans le cadre d'un recours aux mères porteuses, le refus de reconnaissance de la filiation établie à l'étranger ainsi que le statut de l'enfant. / A cumbersome process combined with fewer adoptable children impedes French demands for adoption which results in the potential parents seeking solutions abroad. Resorting to optional filiation through international adoption or surrogacy leads prospective French parents or actual candidates, to enter multiple contracts. This contractualization of optional filiations has surprisingly swept across France, clashing against principles of French law calling for a protection of the personal status and capacity by keeping them out of contracts. This study on freedom of will within the process of optional filiation highlights the tension between the prospective and also the biological parents', and the child's interests. This study also puts in perspective those interests with that of the State which intends to guard principles such as inalienability of the human body. In order to make sure every interest is taken into account, such a process needs to be regulated, and a legal framework needs to be implemented. However, in a world where globalization is the trend (forum shopping, law shopping) finding common ground to set rules and regulations regarding the optional filiation process is easier said than done and raises many difficulties concerning the adopted childÕs status and the refusal to recognize filiation through foreign adoption. Such a process also raises questions: What legal qualification should apply to agreements within the adoption process or in case of surrogacy contracts?

Surrogacy arrangements have become an increasingly popular way for childless people to build a family. Yet many jurisdictions do not regulate surrogacy. Even in the ab-sence of surrogacy regulation, if a jurisdiction has no specific legal rules that clarify parenthood following surrogacy, the result is often uncertainty in relation to the legal parental status of the surrogate mother, her spouse or cohabitant, any possible donors, and the commissioning parents. This, in turn, leaves the surrogate-born child’s family law status uncertain.   This thesis examines the legal aspects of parenthood and how it is, or could be, determined in Sweden following surrogacy arrangements. Important aims are to estab-lish whether the current national laws regulating family law can sufficiently protect the interests of the surrogate-born child and the parties to surrogacy arrangements, with an emphasis on interests connected to family law status; to examine the ways in which other jurisdictions (England and Wales, and Israel) have responded to similar issues; and to identify problems and propose alternative solutions in relation to the specific issue of establishing legal parenthood following surrogacy at a domestic level, either with or without State regulation of surrogacy agreements.   Consideration is given to whether it might be appropriate to re-evaluate or qualify the existing presumptions of parenthood, in particular the unwritten presumption of maternity. Several alternatives for the transfer of legal parenthood from the surrogate mother, and her spouse or cohabitant as the case may be, to the commissioning parent or parents are also examined. In addition, the ethical implications of surrogacy ar-rangements are explored in order to provide an insight into the way in which subcon-scious or hidden values might make it difficult for a State to regulate certain areas of private life such as parenthood.   The starting point for the thesis is that it is in the best interests of the child to have parents at birth and that this interest must be prioritised over an intended parent’s interest in becoming a parent. This view is based on and is consistent with existing Swedish law and policy.

The subject of the following dissertation, as the title states, is to explore legal and ethical aspects of the protection of human life and its dignity. Its aim is not merely to attempt to map the present legal situation regarding the protection of human life in the legal system of the Czech Republic, but also to outline some philosophical and anthropological implications which could have considerable influence on the practical consequences of some legal measures, including general aspects of the protection of human life and the legal regulation of two areas of study chosen by the author, namely assisted reproduction and euthanasia. In this sense the following work does not simply describe the various philosophical- anthropological conceptions in a neutral way, but offers to the reader a possible model which, in the view of the author, best corresponds to the degree of protection that human life and dignity can claim in early and terminal phases, taking a neoscholastic and personalistic view of man and his ontological status, in order to try to deduce from this model ethical implications both in a general sense and in relation to the two above-mentioned areas of application. The aim of the work is thus not only to describe the degree of protection of human life de lege lata, but also by making comparisons...

The following is a study and comparison of the various types of surrogacy currently being implemented locally and internationally and the laws surrounding it. I discuss the current South African legal framework on surrogacy and summarise the relevant legislative provisions whilst also further discussing the provisions prohibiting commercial surrogacy and the reasons behind them. Thereafter an investigation follows into other counties in respect of their individual laws regulating surrogacy and more specifically, commercial surrogacy. I discuss how these countries attempted to regulate commercial surrogacy and which regulations were a success and which weren‘t. The various international laws and regulations surrounding surrogacy as well as commercial surrogacy is then compared and discussed in a South African context. A discussion on the intertwined constitutional rights of the surrogate mother, commissioning parents and child follows and in conclusion I offer some recommendations on how to go about legalising commercial surrogacy safely and successfully implementing it free from exploitation. / Private Law / LL.M. (Specialisation in Private Law)