In Nigeria, reproduction is highly valued, with many people desiring to produce a child 'in their own image and likeness'. Previously, aspiring parents often resorted to adoption. Today, the availability of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) has provided options other than adoption for those desiring to procreate. Through ARTs, aspirations for a family may be attained through an exchange of reproductive goods and services, and not necessarily through traditional heterosexual relationships. ARTs have altered the perception of parenthood as it exists in Nigeria, and courts face a difficult task in defining parenthood within Nigerian jurisprudence, as they can only adjudicate based on extant law. Although ARTs provide greater individual choices for fulfilling the desire to procreate, they raise a number of ethical and legal issues that evolving legal systems, such as that in Nigeria, are ill-equipped to manage. This paper describes the traditional assignment of parenthood under indigenous laws and other sources of law within the Nigerian jurisprudence. We carried out an in-depth study of the Nigerian legislative framework and found that there are no laws directly regulating parenthood, procreation and ARTs in Nigeria. We also found that the extant laws are only tangentially related and do not answer the relevant questions sufficiently well, especially concerning succession, nationality and assignment of responsibility in collaborative reproduction. We conclude by highlighting the need for and recommending a regulatory framework on ARTs with a particular focus on providing a definition for parenthood achieved through ARTs in Nigeria.
Jurisprudence , Parents , Reproductive Techniques, Assisted/legislation & jurisprudence , Adult , Child , Culture , Female , Humans , Male , Nigeria/ethnology , Parent-Child Relations/ethnology , Parent-Child Relations/legislation & jurisprudence , Religion
This paper examines the legal aspects of parenthood and how it is, or could be, determined in Nigeria given the wide popularity and uptake of assisted reproductive technology (ART). It aims to establish whether the existing national laws can sufficiently protect the interests of the child who is born and of the consumers, with an emphasis on the determination of the status of the parents. It also identifies problems and proposes solutions with regard to the specific issue of establishing legal parenthood following the use of ART, either with or without state regulation. The paper concludes by recommending specific ART legislation that could help solve the problems, and advises Nigerian law-makers to pay attention to statutes from other jurisdictions as a guide.
Legislation, Medical , Parents , Reproductive Techniques, Assisted/legislation & jurisprudence , Child , Humans , Nigeria
