INTRODUCTION

Society evolves due to scientific advances in assisted reproductive techniques (ART), allowing couples and single parents to form their families.Nowadays, children can have more people playing different roles in their lives besides their biological parents. For instance, parents can raise children conceived through surrogacy or gamete donation to whom they have no genetic link, or polyamorous parents can choose to raise children with two or more other people.3 The modern family has different elements (emotional, functional, social) that may complement and conflict with each other.While reproductive medicine and gamete donation help couples have offspring when they cannot conceive naturally, in legal terms, it raises the question of whether these children have the right to know their genetic origins.4 5 Both Articles 7 and 8 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)6 and the case law on Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)7 recognise this right.This new reality invites legislators worldwide to rethink traditional legal 8 concepts such as legal parentage and parental responsibilities.

During this process of rethinking, legislators face the same challenges: for instance, how to deal with questions of genetic origin, and how does this relate to protecting family life and parental responsibilities? And how to deal with (conflicting) rights of the child, the gamete donor and non-biological parents?

The approach to the issue of conflicting rights varies in the different legal systems, depending on how a legal system balances all the rights and interests at stake in their legislation.