When someone goes to a family lawyer for advice, there's a pretty standard set of issues they'll discuss. These are the traditional family law topics, such as divorce, child custody, marriage, and adoption. Some less common matters, though, also fall under the heading of family law so let's take a look at three of them.
Bioethics
In vitro fertilization (IVF) and cryopreservation have become much bigger topics in the world of family law over the last couple of decades. Making the issue worse is that clinics are not always located in the same states as their clients, opening questions about where the venue for a dispute would be. Likewise, states have not coalesced around a larger framework for bioethics and the family like they have for problems such as divorce and custody.
The classic example of a bioethics issue is what happens to frozen embryos if a couple gets divorced. The smart move is to have an agreement written by a family lawyer in place before the procedure, but not everyone is thinking that way at the time. In the absence of such an agreement, you can expect a long process of navigating the laws in the state you live in and the place where the embryos are being stored.
Gene Therapy
While advances like the CRISPR DNA-editing system hold out the promise for many new medical therapies to emerge, they also create the potential for fresh disputes in family courts. An obvious example is what happens when a couple has joint custody of a future child. One parent may want to proceed with gene therapy while the other opposes it.
Should the rights of the second parent in the joint custody agreement settle the matter with a no, or does a judge have the right to intervene to protect the best interests of the child? Likewise, depending on the questions about the efficacy of some experimental procedures, can anyone say how the best interests standard applies?
Disabilities
Advancements in the treatment of certain disabilities have also created new conundrums in law. For example, a person with Down syndrome has more than double the life expectancy now than someone a generation ago. Individuals who once likely would have remained adult dependants are now capable of leading fuller lives.
This shift opens questions about previous practices used by courts. Someone who is the subject of a court order from more than a decade ago may want to hire a family lawyer to ask for a review.
For more information about new developments, contact a family law practitioner.
