Adoption & Assisted Reproduction Seminar

3 units

This seminar, which adds to the family law curriculum, examines the ways that law constructs our understanding of parenthood and the parent-child relationship. In particular, this course focuses on adoption and assisted reproduction, two ways to create families without sexual procreation. Coverage of adoption entails a review of its history as a child-welfare measure, examination of the adoption process, and consideration of the legal consequences of adoption (including variations such as equitable adoption, stepparent adoption, and second-parent adoption). Important and timely policy debates, such as adoptions by gays and lesbians, transracial adoption, confidentiality versus disclosure of adoption records, and open adoption, all receive attention. The course compares and contrasts adoption with its modern alternatives-- various forms of assisted reproduction (donor insemination, in vitro fertilization, egg donation, traditional and gestational surrogacy, and embryo adoption), methods of family creation used traditionally by infertile couples and, increasingly, by single individuals and gay and lesbian couples. Again, sharply contested policy issues are emphasized (such as parentage rules for children born from collaborative reproduction; the effect of private agreements; and the role of race, class, sexual orientation, and gender in assisted reproduction). For both adoption and assisted reproduction, coverage includes arrangements that cross state and international boundaries, such as intercountry adoptions and reproductive tourism. Special events include student observation of judicial adoption proceedings celebrating Adoption Saturday in St. Louis County and a visit from a reproductive endocrinologist to discuss the medical practice of assisted reproduction. This seminar requires regular class preparation and attendance as well as a first draft of a seminar paper, a one-on-one meeting to discuss the draft, and a final version of the paper.