The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the legal and ethical consequences of new reproductive technologies in the context of Kenya's two systems of law, namely, English-based statutory law and native customary law. The paper starts by examining how infertility was dealt with by traditional Kenyan societies before the advent of reproductive technologies and proceeds to look at some of these customs that have survived in contemporary Kenya. / Currently reproductive technologies are being carried out in a legal vacuum in Kenya and in the event of any dispute involving the procedures, courts have to refer to existing laws, both customary and statutory. The thesis therefore examines what these technologies are and how Kenya's dual system of law would respond to some of the family law dilemmas raised by the use of these reproductive procedures. The thesis then discusses whether there is enough justification to enact a new, uniform, hybrid Act that takes into consideration both systems of laws in relation to the challenges brought on the technologies. / It is the position of the author that an integrated hybrid Act ought to be passed. This Act would act as a broad framework for regulation, however the Act would not be the exclusive form of regulation. The last part of the thesis therefore makes recommendations on other forms of control that ought to be considered by legislators and policy makers in Kenya, to deal with the myriad of legal and ethical issues precipitated by reproductive technologies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.30333 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Wasunna, Angela. |
| Contributors | Harvison-Young, Alison (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Laws (Institute of Comparative Law.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001747736, proquestno: MQ64309, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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