THE LAW OF PARENTHOOD IN IRELAND

The law of parenthood is undergoing a radical re-examination in the twenty-first century. Rapid advances in artificial reproductive techniques, combined with increasingly diverse family forms, mean that the traditional understanding of legal parents as one man and one woman, who are married and who are genetically related to the child, no longer holds true. This chapter explores the regulation of legal parenthood in Ireland. It considers the allocation of parenthood following natural reproduction, artificial conception and surrogacy, and analyses ways in which new family forms can fit within the current legal categories.