” examining the intense aspiration of parents and children to attain both liberty and prosperity and how this affects traditional identities and rights within the family “
Professor Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan, Holder of the Chief Justice Panganiban Professorial Chair on Liberty and Prosperity delivered her paper – Parents and Children: When Law and Technology Unbundle Traditional Identities – on March 28, 2019 at the 1st Floor Lecture Room, Bocobo Hall, UP Law Center, University of the Philippines – Diliman, Quezon City.
Professor Pangalangan’s paper explores how civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights impact on women and children in two particular legal situations: adoption and surrogacy. The paper discusses domestic and international laws on adoption and problems that still persist surrounding the adequacy of legal safeguards for the rights of the birth mother, the adopting parents and the child, especially in the context of intercountry adoption. In the subject of surrogacy, there is no Philippine law and international convention regulating it, but neither is there any explicit prohibition against it.
The paper argues that domestic laws did not contemplate the advent of technology that will make assisted reproductive technology possible nor the ease by which people can travel that makes cross border adoption and surrogacy accessible. It seeks to answer the following questions, among others: (1) do Philippine laws defining who are the mother and father of a child applicable in cases of adoption and surrogacy; (2) will a law that allows commercial surrogacy or encourage intercountry adoption not violate the political right to physical integrity of the birth or surrogate mother resulting in the commodification of her womb and her baby, or infringe on the right of every child to a name and nationality; (3) will a law that throws a blanket prohibition on intercountry adoption and international surrogacy agreements not disturb economic and social rights, such as the right to family life of the intending parents, the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to work of the surrogate, and freedom from discrimination of all parties especially the adopted child or the child born of a surrogate; and (4) what changes in the Philippine legal order are necessary to implement the best interest of the child standard, which has animated both legislation and jurisprudence?
The public lecture is the 19th of a series of lectures and debates under the Chief Justice Panganiban Professorial Chairs on Liberty and Prosperity Program. FLP is undertaking this program in partnership with the Metrobank Foundation, Inc. and in cooperation with the Philippine Association of Law Schools. The program aims to encourage educational institutions and law schools to research and propagate at the academe the philosophy of safeguarding the liberty and nurturing the prosperity of our people under the rule of law.
Distinguished guests include retired Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban, Court of Appeals Justice Louis P. Acosta, Sandiganbayan Justice Efren N. De La Cruz, Metrobank Corporate Secretary Antonio V. Viray, Dean Fides C. Cordero-Tan of the UP College of Law, Dean Anna D. Abad of Adamson University, Metrobank Foundation Executive Director Nicanor Torres, and Atty. Jannica Robles-Santos of the Court of Tax Appeals Presiding Justice. Apart from the faculty, students from the UP College of Law and other colleges of UP Diliman, Far Eastern University Institute of Law, Ateneo Law School, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, and Manila Tytana Colleges (former Manila Doctors College) attended the lecture.
Professor Pangalangan’s full lecture can be accessed at www.libpros.com, the official website of the FLP.
Professor Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan and retired Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban
Opening remarks by Dean Fides Cordero-Tan of UP College of Law
Professor Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan delivering her lecture
Retired Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban delivering his closing remarks
28 March 2019
Professor Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan
University of the Philippines-Diliman College of Law
“Parents and Children: When Law and Technology Unbundle Traditional Identities”
(downloadable PDF | presentation)