IARC’s director, Steven H. Snyder, was featured in Minnesota Lawyer, a legal publication based in Minneapolis, Minn. The article explains about the new assisted reproduction technology achievements and mentions how new state legislation would enable parents to have a simpler and less expensive fertility programs.

Minnesota in need of updated ART laws
January 15, 2010 by Michelle Lore

I recently conducted a very interesting interview with a local attorney who focuses most of his practice on guiding clients who use assisted reproductive technology (ART) through the legal system.

Many of Maple Grove attorney Steven Snyder’s days involve negotiating and drafting the contracts necessary to establish parentage in ART cases, filing the paperwork and, if necessary, appearing in court once a baby is born to ensure that his clients are on the birth certificate.

For the past seven years, Snyder has also diligently been lobbying for updates to the rather outdated assisted reproductive technology laws in Minnesota (and elsewhere through his work as chair of the American Bar Association Family Law Section’s Assisted Reproductive Technologies Committee). For example, Minnesota’s current law — which is three decades old — only deals with sperm donors, not egg or embryo donors, and it only shields sperm donors from parentage if they donate sperm to married couples.

Frankly, I am amazed that Minnesota is still in the dark ages on this issue, particularly with all the advances that are being made in the area of assisted reproductive technology and the increasing number of people who are using the procedures. But I can’t blame the Legislature, since two years ago a bill that would have addressed some of the problems surrounding the current law and made assisted reproduction cases simpler and less expensive for prospective parents passed both the Minnesota House and the Senate. But Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed the bill, which Snyder believes was due to the fact that same-sex couples would have been covered by it.

With Pawlenty still in office, Snyder won’t be pushing for the same bill this year, but he is going to lobby for an amendment to the parentage statutes that will give folks who use egg donors or surrogates standing to assert parental rights if a dispute arises. It’s a way off from the substantive changes we really need in Minnesota, but it sounds like a good start anyway.

http://minnlawyerblog.com/2010/01/15/minnesota-in-need-of-updated-art-laws/