Janne Rothmar Herrmann

Anonymity and Openness in Donor Conception: The New Danish Model

In many European countries, such as e.g., Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Austria the regulatory trend has been a move towards openness in donation of gametes for conception. In Denmark the possibility of donating and receiving donated sperm completely anonymously has, however, been maintained. Consequently, the supply of donated sperm remains so high that the world’s largest sperm bank is in fact based in Denmark and that a lot of women and couples — who are affected by stricter national regulation in their own country but none the less wish to build their family according to how they envisage the good family life, travel to Denmark in order to receive treatment with anonymous donor sperm. Or they buy sperm off the internet for home insemination. This commentary traces the raison d’être of anonymity in Danish law, accounts for the legal framework for the export of Danish sperm and examines the new Danish model in donor conception which offers women/couples a choice of anonymity or openness in donation.

Eggs on Ice. Imaginaries on Eggs and Cryopreservation in Denmark

Abstract While Denmark is widely known as a global exporter of cryopreserved sperm, Danish women’s eggs face a very different fate. This paper combines legal and rhetorical analyses with the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries. In establishing the genealogy of the sociotechnical imaginaries that shaped Danish regulation of the cryopreservation of eggs, we analyse the relevant Acts, Bills, preparatory work, and readings in Parliament, along with the concurrent public and ethical debates that over time relaxed the legal limit for the cryopreservation of eggs to the current five years and today continue to ignite discussions on elective egg freezing. We rely on welfare-state perspectives to discuss why reproduction, in the Danish context, is seen as a legitimate and appropriate sphere to regulate, and we turn to feminist theorizing to discuss the gendered implications captured in the sociotechnical imaginaries of the “Moral State”, “technologies to be tamed”, “the nuclear family”, and “technology as equality and hope”. We end by discussing how an interdisciplinary approach enriches our understanding of the legal, cultural, and political entanglements related to putting eggs on ice.

Use of the dead body in healthcare and medical training: mapping and balancing the legal rights and values.

By exploring the central legal principles and issues regarding usage of the dead body in healthcare and especially in medical training, this article aims at drawing some general conclusions on the legal status of the dead body and the protection of the deceaseds integrity, dignity and autonomy. The article demonstrates that the use of the cadaveric body for scientific and educational purposes involves a redrawing of the traditional boundaries between the decent and the indecent, making these acts acceptable that would otherwise be regarded as assaults on the sanctity of bodily boundaries. This is made possible by the fact that the underlying principle of dignity is not perceived to be of an absolute nature when applicable to deceased persons.

Death Before Life: The Legal Status of Cadaveric Foetuses

This anthology aims to provide Nordic perspectives on the young and evolving field of health law – or biomedical law – by reflecting on issues that have been explored within the activities of the Nordic Network for Research in Biomedical Law. In the emergence of this fairly new legal discipline, it has become very clear that the Nordic region forms a part of Europe that has been strongly influenced by both hard and soft law initiatives from the European Union and the Council of Europe, but also that Nordic identity, culture, and collaboration clearly remain an important factor in the legal development of this particular region.