Families Under Construction: Parentage, Adoption, and Assisted Reproduction, Second Edition

This book is designed for law school seminars and courses, including first-year electives, as well as advanced undergraduate courses in legal studies or other departments. Families Under Construction: Parentage, Adoption, and Assisted Reproduction, Second Edition, provides an in-depth exploration of the fascinating and controversial issues emerging out of biotechnology and society’s changing understanding of family identity. The authors combine solid treatment of the law and carefully crafted additional content to provoke inquiry and fuel class discussion, using a multidisciplinary presentation of legal authorities, policy perspectives, critical analysis, and cultural contexts. Coverage includes the impact of marriage equality, increasing departures from traditional family arrangements, and modern approaches to adoption, as well as infertility treatments, collaborative reproductive arrangements, and reproductive tourism.

New to the Second Edition:

• A new Part I on parentage, parental responsibilities, and parental authority, tracing the evolution from traditional doctrine to contemporary approaches and emphasizing the policy of keeping dependency private
• The addition of principal cases on wrongful adoption, challenges to sealed adoption records, and intercountry adoption
• Restructured chapters on assisted reproduction reflecting consequential changes in the legal landscape

Professors and students will benefit from:

• Thorough coverage of significant cases, statutes, and regulations, including law reform efforts and recognition of law’s silence on some topics
• Opportunities for comparative analysis of law and policy, from “then” to “now” and among various states and nations, with examination of jurisdiction, choice of law, and enforcement
• An approach that questions core concepts, such as parentage, by highlighting the role of the state in the construction of family and the influence of assumptions about gender, race, sexualities, marriage, class, and dependency
• Inclusive materials, such as narratives as well as summaries of popular books and films, which explore the interaction of law and life
• Consideration of professional responsibility, including the often challenging role of lawyers in adoptions and reproductive collaborations
• A mix of classic and leading-edge cases
• Notes and Questions that provide background and illuminate salient themes
• Thought-provoking Problems that prompt consideration of new issues
• Inserts presenting “Depictions in Popular Culture” of the situations at the center of the cases