Brian Sloan: ‘The ‘Chimera’ of Parenthood’

Speaker: Dr Brian Sloan, College Lecturer & Fellow in Law, Robinson College, Cambridge

A joint seminar between Cambridge Reproduction and the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group.

In 2015, The Independent newspaper reported the case of a man who had ‘failed’ a paternity test in the United States because the genetic material in his saliva was different from that in his sperm. This was apparently the first reported instance of a paternity test being ‘fooled’ by a ‘human chimera’. Such a chimera has extra genes, in this instance absorbed from a twin lost in early pregnancy. The result was that the true genetic father of the man’s son was the man’s deceased twin, who had never been born. Cases of chimeras potentially present a challenge to legal systems, given their frequent emphasis on genetics in determining parenthood. This seminar will explore the likely practical response of English Law to the situation of a potential chimera, with reference inter alia to the human rights of all family members involved. The seminar will then consider what the phenomenon of the chimera might tell us about our understanding of parenthood and the differences between biological motherhood and fatherhood respectively. It will advocate the recognition of the chimeric person as the ‘true’ legal father but point out that this may require fatherhood to be understood as more of a ‘process’ than is often realised.

Brian Sloan is College Lecturer & Fellow in Law, Robinson College, Cambridge and a member of the Cambridge Family Law Centre. His research focuses on issues including care of both adults and children. He is the author/editor of several books, most recently Spaces of Care (Hart, 2020, edited with Loraine Gelsthorpe and Perveez Mody). Several of his many articles concern the law of adoption and parenthood.


About This Source - Cambridge Law Faculty

The Faculty of Law, Cambridge is the law school of the University of Cambridge. In 2018, it was ranked the best law school in the United Kingdom and second best law school in the world.

Books from Cambridge Law #Ad

Recent from Cambridge Law Faculty:

Conversations with mrs cherry hopkins: conversation #1 1

Conversations with Mrs Cherry Hopkins: Conversation #1

‘The Rule of Law’: The 2006 Sir David Williams Lecture (audio)

‘Looking Beyond our Borders: The Value of a Comparative Perspective in Constitutional Adjudicatio…

In This Story: United States

The United States is a country also known as the United States of America, USA, US or just America. There are fifty states in the union, which is a federal republic ruled by a representative democracy. Nearly ten million square kilometres are inhabited by over 300 million people. The majority of Americans speak English.

4 Recent Items: United States

Why The World Is Rushing Back To The Moon

US march for life: Abortion rights likely issue in Nov election

US mulls seizing $300 billion in frozen Russian assets for Ukraine | DW News

North Korea and the new Cold War | 60 Minutes Full Episodes

Leave a Comment

We don't require your email address, or your name, for anyone to leave a comment. If you do add an email address, you may be notified if there are replies to your comment - we won't use it for any other purpose. Please make respectful comments, which add value, and avoid personal attacks on others. Links are not allowed in comments - 99% of spam comments, attempt to post links. Please describe where people may find additional information - for example "visit the UN website" or "search Google for..." rather than posting a link. Comments failing to adhere to these guidelines will not be published.