The Legal Status of Surrogacy Agreements and the American Convention on Human Rights

Le Groupe de recherche en santé et droit de McGill (GRSD), en collaboration avec le Centre sur les droits de la personne et le pluralisme juridique de McGill accueille Martín Hevia, doyen exécutif à la Faculté de droit de Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (Buenos Aires, Argentine).

La présentation se fera en anglais. La conférence est gratuite, mais l'inscription est obligatoire, car le nombre de places est limité. RSVP: rghl [dot] law [at] mcgill [dot] ca. 

Résumé:

[En anglais seulement] Under the Inter-American Human Rights System, individuals have a right to access reproductive technologies. This is so in virtue of the 2012 Inter-American Court of Human Rights landmark reproductive rights decision in Artavia Murillo v. Costa Rica where the Court held that a complete ban on reproductive technologies and assisted reproductive technologies, in particular, interferes with the right to a private and family life, which comprises the decision to become a parent, as well the option and access to the means to materialize that private decision. The Court also held that banning access to ARTs discriminates against infertile couples who cannot afford to travel abroad to get treatment. In spite of the Artavia Murillo ruling, the legal status of surrogacy agreements in State Parties to the Convention is uncertain.

In this presentation, I will examine whether surrogacy is compatible with the Inter-American System of Human Rights. The core question is whether a complete ban on commercial or altruistic surrogacy is compatible with the American Convention on Human Rights. I will examine this issue through a close exploration of the comparative case law and regulatory frameworks in this matter.

Le conférencier:

[En anglais seulement] Martín Hevia is Executive Dean of the School of Law, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (Buenos Aires, Argentina).  He earned his doctorate in law in 2007 at the University of Toronto (where he was awarded the Alan Marks Medal to the Best Graduate Thesis)  and his law degree in 2001 at the Torcuato Di Tella University. Professor Hevia is a legal consultant to Argentine Legal Congress and has been legal consultant on the reform, actualization, and unification of the Civil and Commercial Codes (2012–2013) and has been consulted as an Expert for the World Health Organization Public Health Law Consultation Group.

His papers have been published in international journals such as Harvard Journal of Health & Human Rights, Texas Law Review, International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law, Florida Journal of International Law, Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence, and International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics. He is the author of Reasonableness and Responsibility: A Theory of Contract Law (2013), His papers have been quoted by Argentine courts such as the National Civil and Commercial Law Chamber. He is the Treasurer of the Iberoamerican Association of Law Schools.

Formation d’un dispensateur reconnu aux fins de la formation continue obligatoire pour une durée de 1,5 heures.