Surrogacy in China: A Dilemma Between Public Policy and the Best Interests of Children

Driven by high demands from society, the surrogacy industry has flourished in recent years in China with an estimate of 10,000 resulting children born every year. The legislature has deliberately chosen to refrain from prescribing rules on how surrogacy should be managed and governed in China. Through adjudicating surrogacy-related disputes, Chinese courts have played a crucial role in establishing the framework under which surrogacy operates. Applying Article 3 of the 2001 Measure expansively in conjunction with some general principles such as public order and morals, the court has laid down a de facto general ban on surrogacy of any form. The assignment of legal parentage has been influenced by this public policy consideration and Chinese courts ruled out the enforceability of parentage transfer agreements between the parties. With the surrogate carrier being designated as the natural mother and intending mother as the social parent, this arrangement creates further uncertainties and confusion over legal parentage and custody, which is not in the best interest of the resulting child.

Earthly Mother, Holy Witch: Social Perceptions of Maria-Magdalena Mazepa (1687-1707)

Maria-Magdalena Mazepa, the natural mother of Hetman Ivan Mazepa and mother superior of an elite women’s convent in Kyiv, played a prominent role as her son’s informal political aide and confidante from the start of his hetmanship in 1687 until her death in 1707. Her forceful personality and willingness to engage with the power struggles in the Hetmanate provoked social resentment, which culminated in a formally recorded witchcraft accusation. Drawing on broader East Slavic and older Byzantine models, the article explores the charge of sorcery against Maria-Magdalena placed within the cultural and political context of the Ukrainian Hetmanate at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries.

The pragmatic function of self/other reference in Mandarin child language

This study investigated self/other reference in Mandarin child language by testing the hypothesis that children’s overt self/other reference is related to the pragmatic notion of social control (Budwig, 1989, 1990, 1995). The participants were two Mandarin-speaking children and their mothers. Natural mother–child conversations were video-recorded when the children were between the ages of 2;2 and 3;1. Each child and maternal utterance with an implicit or explicit self/other reference was categorized by function as either control act or assertive. The analysis showed that the children tended to use overt forms for self/other reference in control acts while using null forms in assertives. In contrast, the mothers’ speech did not reflect such a distinction. The results suggest that social control appears to be a salient notion to Mandarin-speaking children, and that the children organize their use of self/other reference forms around the pragmatic notion of social control.

Serial Observations and Mutational Analysis of an Adoptee with Family History of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is an inherited cardiac disease with an autosomal dominant mode of transmission. Comprehensive genetic screening of several genes frequently found mutated in HCM is recommended for first-degree relatives of HCM patients. Genetic testing provides the means to identify those at risk of developing HCM and to institute measures to prevent sudden cardiac death (SCD). Here, we present an adoptee whose natural mother and maternal relatives were known be afflicted with HCM and SCD. The proband was followed closely from age 6 to 17 years, revealing a natural history of the progression of clinical findings associated with HCM. Genetic testing of the proband and her natural mother, who is affected by HCM, revealed that they were heterozygous for both the R719Q and T1513S variants in the cardiac beta-myosin heavy chain (MYH7) gene. The proband's ominous family history indicates that the combination of the R719Q and T1513S variantsin cismay be a “malignant” variant that imparts a poor prognosis in terms of the disease progression and SCD risk.

Gender and Authority of Oral Witnesses in Europe (800–1300)

Between 1068 and 1070 an extraordinary dispute was settled at Bonneville-sur-Touques in Normandy. Duke William, who had recently become king of England, and his wife Matilda, heard the story of a contested property at Bayeux which centred on the identity of a rented child. The story goes as follows. A man called Stephen had married a widow called Oringa by whom he had a small son (puerulus) who lived only a short while. When the boy died, Oringa substituted for him, without her husband's knowledge, the son of a woman called Ulburga at Martragny (Calvados, c. Creully), to whom she paid an annual sum of 100 solidi. Stephen made the boy his heir and left him his property. When first Oringa and then Stephen died, the boy's natural mother emerged and demanded rent from the couple's surprised relatives. The family refused to pay and Ulberga turned to Duke William and his wife Matilda. Having heard die case Duke William, in consultation with Archbishop John of Rouen, Roger of Beaumont and others, decided that an ordeal of the hot iron would be die most appropriate way to establish the truth. William and Matilda sent their chaplain Rainald to Bayeux to organise the ordeal, which took place in the monastery of Saint-Vigor in the presence of Rainald himself, two named archdeacons, Robert Insule and his wife Albereda, Euremarus of Bayeux and many otfier good men (meliores homines) of Bayeux. Ulburga emerged unscathed from the ordeal by fire and therefore her son was returned to her.

Further evidence that circadian rhythm of blinded rat pups is entrained by the nursing dam

To determine the importance of the nursing mother in setting the phase of the endogenous rhythm in blinded rat pups, free-running rhythm of locomotor activity in the pups was observed during 4-5 wk after weaning. Blinded pups, optically enucleated on day 1, were raised by either an intact natural mother or an intact foster mother with a rhythm reversed to that of the natural mother. The locomotor activity was continuously recorded for 4-5 wk, starting between 3 and 5 postnatal wk. At 5 wk of age the offset time of activity phase was found during the periods corresponding to the middle half of the light phase in the nursing period, regardless of whether they were raised by a natural or a foster mother. The free-running periods, in the blinded pups tested, were fairly close, with the majority ranging between 24.3 and 24.5 h. These findings indicate that the endogenous rhythm of the blinded pups is entrained by the nursing mother during the nursing period.

Surrogate Mothers: Whose Baby Is It?

Advances in medical technology offer infertile couples who wish to raise children alternatives to adoption. The increasing number of surrogate mother contracts creates a myriad of legal issues surrounding the rights of the natural mother, the natural father and die child that is produced. In this Article, the Author discusses the legal issues and rights of the parties under the Constitution, the surrogate contract and family law principles. The Author proposes that courts should consider a surrogate contract as a revocable prebirdi agreement which allows the natural mother to keep the child if she chooses. In addition, die Audior advocates an interpretation of the statutes forbidding baby selling that would prohibit surrogate contracts in which the mother is paid a fee for the child.