It Takes a Village to Raise a Child: Solidarity in the Courts-Judicial Justification for Posthumous Use of Sperm by Bereaved Parents.

The practice of posthumous use of sperm raises social, ethical, and legal questions. We examine the issue of who should be allowed to use the sperm-only the deceased's spouse or the deceased's parents as well-from the perspective of solidarity and relational autonomy. Following a theoretical discussion of various accounts of solidarity and relational autonomy, the legal status of posthumous assisted reproduction is examined in three jurisdictions-the USA, Australia, and Israel-in which most applications to the courts were submitted by the deceased's parents. In Israel, we found fifteen court rulings on requests for posthumous use of sperm and fourteen in Australia. A smaller number were found in the case of the USA. The analysis reveals that Israeli and Australian courts employ solidarity-based arguments to justify their decisions to allow posthumous use of sperm, particularly when the deceased's true wishes are unknown. We thus conclude that the posthumous use of sperm can be legally extended to include the deceased's parents based on solidarity and relational autonomy arguments.

The Discriminatory Legal Barrier of Partner Consent in Victorian ART Law: EHT18 v Melbourne IVF.

In September 2018, the Federal Court of Australia found that a Victorian woman did not need her estranged husband's consent to undergo in vitro fertilisation treatment (IVF) using donor sperm. The woman, who was 45 years of age, made an urgent application to the Court for permission to undergo IVF using donor sperm. In a single judge ruling, Griffiths J held that the requirement in the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008 (Vic) ('ART Act') for a married woman to obtain the consent of her husband discriminated against the woman in question on the basis of her marital status in contravention of the Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) ('SD Act'). His Honour declared the Victorian law in this instance 'invalid and inoperable' by operation of section 109 of the Commonwealth Constitution to the extent it was inconsistent with the Commonwealth law. Although the declarations by the Federal Court were limited in their terms to the circumstances of the case, the judgment raises broader issues about equity of access to assisted reproductive treatment (ART) in Victoria. The issue of partner consent as a barrier to access to ART was specifically raised by an independent review of the ART Act in Victoria. The Victorian Government released an interim report late last year as a first stage of the review, which canvasses some options for reform. This raises a broader question as to whether prescriptive legislation imposing detailed access requirements for ART is necessary or even helpful.

Fertility Counseling and Treatment for Certain Veterans and Spouses. Interim final rule.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) amends its regulation regarding fertility counseling and treatment available to certain veterans and spouses. VA currently provides certain infertility services other than in vitro fertilization (IVF) to veterans as part of the medical benefits package. IVF is the process of fertilization by manually fertilizing an egg, and then transferring the embryo to the uterus. This interim final rulemaking adds a new section authorizing IVF for a veteran with a service-connected disability that results in the inability of the veteran to procreate without the use of fertility treatment. In addition, we add a new section stating that VA may provide fertility counseling and treatment using assisted reproductive technologies (ART), including IVF, to a spouse of a veteran with a service-connected disability that results in the inability of the veteran to procreate without the use of fertility treatment. VA will provide ART treatment, including IVF, to these veterans and spouses as specified in the Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act to the extent such services are consistent with the services available to enrolled veterans under the medical benefits package.

Changes in Reported Sexual Orientation Following US States Recognition of Same-Sex Couples.

OBJECTIVES: To compare changes in self-reported sexual orientation of women living in states with any recognition of same-sex relationships (e.g., hospital visitation, domestic partnerships) with those of women living in states without such recognition. METHODS: We calculated the likelihood of women in the Nurses' Health Study II (n = 69 790) changing their reported sexual orientation between 1995 and 2009. RESULTS: We used data from the Nurses' Health Study II and found that living in a state with same-sex relationship recognition was associated with changing one's reported sexual orientation, particularly from heterosexual to sexual minority. Individuals who reported being heterosexual in 1995 were 30% more likely to report a minority orientation (i.e., bisexual or lesbian) in 2009 (risk ratio = 1.30; 95% confidence interval = 1.05, 1.61) if they lived in a state with any recognition of same-sex relationships compared with those who lived in a state without such recognition. CONCLUSIONS: Policies recognizing same-sex relationships may encourage women to report a sexual minority orientation. Future research is needed to clarify how other social and legal policies may affect sexual orientation self-reports.

Family and Medical Leave Act; Definition of Spouse. Final rule.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is revising the definition of spouse in its regulations on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) as a result of the decision by the United States Supreme Court holding section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional. The new definition replaces the existing definition, which contains language from DOMA that refers to "a legal union between one man and one woman.'' The new definition permits Federal employees with same-sex spouses to use FMLA leave in the same manner as Federal employees with opposite-sex spouses.

Definition of spouse under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Final rule.

The Department of Labor's (Department) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) revises the regulation defining "spouse" under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA or the Act) in light of the United States Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Windsor, which found section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to be unconstitutional.

TRICARE; changes included in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010; expansion of survivor eligibility under the TRICARE Dental Program. Final rule.

The Department is publishing this final rule to implement the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 (NDAA for FY10), as amended by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 (NDAA for FY11). Specifically, that legislation expands the survivor eligibility under the TRICARE Dental Program (TDP). The 2011 amendment to the legislation entitles the surviving spouse and child(ren) continuation of eligibility for the TDP regardless of whether they were previously enrolled in the TDP. Prior enrollment in the TDP had been a requirement of the 2010 legislation for both the spouse and children. The period of continued eligibility for a spouse will be 3 years beginning on the date of the member's death. The legislation entitles a child to continuation of eligibility for the TDP for the longer of three years or until age 21 (or 23 for most full-time students). Survivors, who meet the new eligibility requirements, will obtain TDP eligibility as of the publishing of the final rule in the Federal Register. Retroactive payment of premiums or claims paid for dental treatment during the time of loss of TDP eligibility will not be reimbursed to surviving dependents.

Expansion of state home care for parents of a child who died while serving in the armed forces. Final rule.

This document amends Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regulations concerning the payment of per diem to a State for providing nursing home care to eligible veterans. The amendments remove a restriction on VA's payment of per diem, which required all non-veteran residents of a State home to be spouses of veterans, or parents of veterans all of whose children died while serving in the Armed Forces of the United States. Under this final rule, non-veteran residents of the State home must be spouses of veterans, or parents of veterans any of whose children died while serving in the Armed Forces.

[Social integration and life satisfaction of childless women and men in mid- and late-life]. / Soziale Integration und Lebenszufriedenheit kinderloser Frauen und Männer im mittleren und höheren Erwachsenenalter.

OBJECTIVES: Adult children are important members of the social network of older persons. Children are particularly important in facilitating the social integration of the aged. Against this backdrop, this paper explores possible effects of childlessness on the social integration and life satisfaction of middle and older aged women and men. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The data used in this study are drawn from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), an annual survey of private households in Germany. The analysis is restricted to respondents aged between 45 and 84 who live in a marital or nonmarital partnership. Multivariate models are used to examine the effect of childlessness on contacts with relatives and friends, civic, political, and religious participation, as well as life and family satisfaction. RESULTS: Cohabiting childless women and men in mid- and late life are only slightly less socially integrated than parents living in a partnership. Compared to parents, childless elders have fewer social contacts. However, childless men and women do not differ from empty nest parents in their civic, political and religious participation. Moreover, childless elders do not have a lower level of life satisfaction than mothers and fathers. Quite the contrary, childless men und women are happier than parents who coreside with their adult children. CONCLUSIONS: The results presented here revise the common assumption that childlessness negatively affects the social integration and life satisfaction of middle- and older-aged persons.

"Foreign brides" meet ethnic politics in Taiwan.

A great number of women from China, Vietnam, and Indonesia recently arrived in Taiwan to marry men of lower social strata. Such an unusual pattern of migration has stimulated debates about the status and the citizenship of the new arrivals. This study analyzes Taiwanese responses toward these marriage migrants by using a national survey conducted in 2004. Three aspects of restrictive attitudes were tapped concerning these newcomers: (1) rights to work; (2) access to public health insurance; and (3) full citizenship. Immigrants from China were most opposed, compared to women with other origins (Southeast Asia, Japan, Europe, and the US). The seemingly unrelated regression estimation regression results do not support the split labor market hypotheses, as marriage migrants do not appear to be economic threats toward members of the lower classes. In contrast, ethnic nationalism plays a key role in determining the natives' restrictive attitudes. The case of Taiwan represents a special genre, where ethnic politics selectively arouses the social rejection of women immigrants of certain origins.

Partner selection and divorce in ethnic minorities: distinguishing between two types of ethnic homogamous marriages.

This article compares divorce risks according to marriage type. The common dichotomy between ethnic homogamous and ethnic heterogamous marriages is further elaborated by differentiating a third marriage type; ethnic homogamous marriages between individuals from an ethnic minority group and a partner from the country of origin. Based on the analysis of data concerning the Turkish and Moroccan minorities in Belgium, it has been confirmed that the divorce risk associated with these marriages is higher than that of other ethnic homogamous marriages. However, specific divorce patterns according to marriage type also indicate the importance of differences between the minority groups.

Cultural dissimilarity and intermarriage. a longitudinal study of immigrants in Sweden, 1990­2005.

Intermarriage with natives is a key indicator of immigrant integration. This article studies intermarriage for 138 immigrant groups in Sweden, using longitudinal individual level data. It shows great variation in marriage patterns across immigrant populations, ranging from over 70 percent endogamy in some immigrants groups to below 5 percent in other groups. Although part of this variation is explained by human capital and the structure of the marriage market, cultural factors (values, religion, and language) play an important role as well. Immigrants from culturally more dissimilar countries are less likely to intermarry with natives, and instead more prone to endogamy.

A life-course approach to studying transitions among Canadian seniors in couple-only households.

This study tracked the occurrence of death, widowhood, institutionalization, and coresidence with others between 1994 and 2002 for a nationally representative sample of 1,580 Canadian respondents who, at initial interview, were aged 55 and older and living in a couple-only household. Although the majority of seniors remained in a couple-only household throughout the duration of the survey, nearly one in four who experienced a first transition underwent one or more subsequent transitions. Age, economic resources, and health were significant predictors of a specific first transition and multiple transitions. More work is needed to understand the dynamics of the aging process.

Divorce and social class during the early stages of the divorce revolution: evidence from Flanders and the Netherlands.

In times of low divorce rates (such as the nineteenth century and early twentieth century), the authors expect higher social strata to have the highest divorce chances as they are better equipped to break existing barriers to divorce. In this article, the authors analyze data from marriage certificates to assess whether there was a positive effect of occupational class on divorce in Belgium (Flanders) and the Netherlands. Their results for the Netherlands show a positive association between social class and divorce, particularly among the higher cultural groups. In Flanders, the authors do not find this, but they observe a negative association between illiteracy and divorce, an observation pointing in the same direction.

They would if they could: class, gender, and popular representation of English divorce litigation, 1858-1908.

A systematic sample of the petitions presented to the English Divorce Court from 1858 through 1908 makes it possible to assess the differential contribution of discrete social and economic subgroups to the litigation the Court oversaw. An examination of four of these -- the titled aristocracy, those employed in the theater, those in receipt of financial aid, and laborers -- shows that English divorce litigants exhibited a broader social profile than commonly attributed to it by the newspaper coverage of divorce litigation, which gave a skewed impression of its social profile. Analysis of these cases underscores the gendered, class, and geographically inflected demand for divorce in a judicial setting that imposed severe restrictions on access to divorce as a remedy for marital breakdown.

Divorce in early modern rural Japan: household and individual life course in northeastern villages, 1716-1870.

Drawing data from the local population registers in two northeastern agricultural villages, this study examines the patterns and factors associated with divorce in preindustrial Japan. Divorce was easy and common during this period. More than two thirds of first marriages dissolved in divorce before individuals reached age fifty. Discrete-time event history analysis is applied to demonstrate how economic condition and household context influenced the likelihood of divorce for females. Risk of divorce was extremely high in the first three years and among uxorilocal marriages. Propensity of divorce increased upon economic stress in the community and among households of lower social status. Presence of parents, siblings, and children had strong bearings on marriage to continue.

U.S. marital disruptions and their economic and social correlates, 1860-1948.

A new estimate of U.S. marital disruptions shows an increase in desertions relative to divorces after 1900. Desertions were the more volatile component of marital disruptions because of their greater responsiveness to general economic conditions. Large marriage cohorts, formed in the years of economic expansion, disrupted in greater numbers: an increase in the marriage rate by 10 per 1,000 unmarried women raised the proportion of disrupted marriage by 7.3 percentage points. Conversely, during years of recession, many poorer couples were discouraged from marriage; smaller marriage cohorts with more resilient marriages were formed and their lifetime marriage disruption rate was lower.

Freedom to divorce or protection of marriage? The divorce laws in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden in the early twentieth century.

In the period 1909-1927, new laws concerning divorce and marriage were enacted by the Scandinavian countries. Both at the time and more recently, these laws were considered as "liberal" as they promoted greater freedom to divorce based on individuality and gender equality. In this article, the authors first analyze the changes in these Family laws in the early twentieth century. Then, the authors study the effect of these laws on divorce and marriage patterns. As these laws did not modify the trend in divorce rates, the authors ask why this was the case. The authors' conclusions are that the laws were more concerned with preserving the sanctity of marriage and maintaining social order than with promoting individual freedom and gender equality.

Social status, race, and the timing of marriage in Cuba's first constitutional era, 1902-1940.

This article examines the practice of marriage among whites, "mestizos," blacks, Cubans, and Spaniards during the first constitutional era, focusing upon the reported ages of brides and grooms. The study consists of a quantitative examination of trends found in the records of 900 Catholic marriages celebrated in Havana during the opening decades of independence. The first major finding of the research is that according to most major indicators of status, age was negatively correlated with rank. Thus, contrary to the conclusions of studies conducted in many other contexts, those in the highest strata of society married young. Furthermore, very significant differences were detected in the marital patterns of those identified as mixed-race and those labeled as black. This finding offers empirical weight to the notion that the early-mid twentieth-century Cuban racial structure would best be characterized as tripartite, rather than binary in nature.