by Shirley Levitan | Mar 23, 2024 | Family Law, Fertility Law
Both women in lesbian couples can now be named as the mothers on their children’s birth certificates, Israel’s High Court of Justice has ordered. The decision, which is the result of many years of litigation, is being praised by the LGBTQ community as a historic...
by Shirley Levitan | May 7, 2022 | Uncategorized
The 2022 Federal Budget, which was released April 7, 2022, proposes to provide a broader definition of “patient” in cases where a person relies on a surrogate or a donor to become a parent. “Patient” would be defined in these circumstances as:...
by Shirley Levitan | Apr 19, 2022 | Uncategorized
Should sex selection be allowed for “family balancing”? I am thrilled to announce that my debate against sex selection has been included in Cambridge University Press: 50 Big Debates in Reproductive Medicine (Cambridge University Press), released just this...
by Shirley Levitan | Mar 6, 2022 | Uncategorized
Following a court ruling, Israel’s surrogacy law has been expanded to provide access to surrogate pregnancies “to any person in Israel.” Surrogacy had previously been restricted to heterosexual couples and single women with fertility problems. Now it is lawful for...
by Shirley Levitan | Mar 5, 2022 | Uncategorized
What would have been a purely happy occasion turned dark and dangerous when an American couple traveled to Kyiv last month for the birth of their daughter through a Ukrainian surrogate, only to awaken two days after the birth to the sound of exploding artillery shells...
by Shirley Levitan | Oct 18, 2021 | Uncategorized
It turns out males have biological clocks too. Sure, silver-haired gentlemen can still impregnate people – the actor Tony Randall did it when he was 75. But science is now learning that the quality of sperm can deteriorate as a man gets older, so an increasing number...
by Shirley Levitan | Oct 18, 2021 | Uncategorized
Officials in Los Angeles are warning about increasing numbers of pregnant women becoming infected with the coronavirus and being hospitalized. According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, there has been a sharp rise in COVID cases among pregnant women, some...
by Shirley Levitan | Jul 20, 2021 | Blog, Family Law
Thanks to the new Divorce Act, the following cross-examination will never again take place in a Canadian courtroom: LAWYER If the judge decides you can’t take the children with you, will you still move away? PARENT I guess so. It’s a great...
by Shirley Levitan | Apr 8, 2020 | Uncategorized
“Right now, families need more cooperation and less litigation.” So said Justice Alex Pazaratz of the Ontario Superior Court in his recent ruling Ribeiro v Wright, where he refused to hear a mother’s urgent motion to suspend a nine-year-old’s...
by Shirley Levitan | Mar 25, 2020 | Uncategorized
The coronavirus pandemic has caused a lot of stress and anxiety, but luckily there are coping strategies that have been proven to work. Many organizations offer online resources, such as the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), the Canadian Fertility...
