Abstract:
The only Australian case which has specifically dealt with the question of a
self-identifying lesbian accessing artificial reproductive technology (ART)1 is
a decision of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Queensland, JM
v QFG.2 This decision limits access to ART through the legal sanctioning of
a select medical definition of infertility. In essence, the decision of the
Queensland Supreme Court promotes judicial approval of a medical definition
of infertility and rejects social infertility as a basis for access to ART. This
means that lesbian women such as 1M, and potentially lesbian and single
heterosexual women in other Australian jurisdictions, will be considered to be
fertile (or socially infertile) and thereby unable to access ART. This note
examines the decision of JM v QFG and discusses the effect of placing a
medico-legal barrier of 'infertility' upon lesbian access to ART in Australia.
