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Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on September 8, 2006
Human Reproduction 2007 22(1):17-25; doi:10.1093/humrep/del361
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

OPINION

A retrospective study of New Zealand case law involving assisted reproduction technology and the social recognition of ‘new’ family

M. Legge1,3, R. Fitzgerald2 and N. Frank2

1 Department of Biochemistry and 2 Department of Anthropology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

3 To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand. E-mail: mike.legge{at}stonebow.otago.ac.nz

The New Zealand Human Assisted Reproductive Technology (HART) Act became law in 2004. In this article, we provide a retrospective analysis of New Zealand case law from September 1990 to March 2004, leading up to the creation of the HART Act. We examine the new understandings of parenting (developed through the routine use of ART in New Zealand) which the case law attempted to test. We examine these concepts against the previous understandings of family enshrined in the pre-existing legislation, which formed the basis for judicial rulings in the various cases to which we refer. In conclusion, we provide a brief summary of the 2004 HART legislation and draw comparisons between the old and new legislative and bureaucratic frameworks that define and support New Zealand family structure. We suggest that a change in cultural backdrop is occurring from the traditional western ideology of the nuclear family towards the traditional Maori concept of family formation, which includes a well-accepted traditional practice of guardianship and a more open and extended family structure. This ‘new’ structure reflects the contemporary lived experience of family kinship in western societies as individualized and open to choice.

Key words: case law/family/New Zealand/reproductive technologies


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