Abstract
This article examines how law interacts with biotechnological changes and how legal justifications engage with biological and social knowledge that redefine parenthood through assisted reproduction. Using the concept of “biolegality”, I conceptualize the emergence of new forms of legal parenthood and analyse how rights-claims are based on both genetic and legal truth. Contrary to conventional understandings that in the pursuit of justice “law lags behind technology,” the article demonstrates how legal knowledge interacts with the life sciences and technologies and rearranges understandings of rights. Focusing on Australian court practices that concern the legalization of parenthood for children born out of overseas surrogacy arrangements, I analyse arguments and decisions from federal and local cases and demonstrate how a “human rights approach” promoted by judges that act in the “best interest of the child” destabilizes the enforcement of local Australian law prohibiting commercial surrogacy.
Keywords:
global reproduction; surrogacy; biolegality; law and biotechnology