Dear LPG Members:
Happy new year! I hope this finds you all doing well. I am excited and honored to be your Chair of the Legal Professional Group for the 2023-2024 year. I am so grateful to our previous Chairs and hope to build on what they have achieved for the LPG in the years since our professional group began in 2009.
Over the past fourteen years, the LPG Chairs have worked hard to expand and collaborate with the various professional and special interest groups within ASRM, as well as establish our own presence at ASRM. And I think the fruit of their labors is evident. Our membership is up from last year, and we continue to grow. We have a meaningful presence and this would not have happened without the hard work and support of our members.
From the beginning, the LPG Board launched various committees dedicated to expanding our purpose and mission, which is:
“The purpose of the Legal Professional Group is to work collaboratively with ASRM members to raise awareness of, and to clarify the legal issues surrounding, assisted reproductive technologies. The LPG’s mission is to promote ethical legal policies, practices, and protections for ART families, third party collaborators and providers. It also seeks to broaden access to health care for those affected by infertility, reproductive or genetic disorders, and other challenges to their family building goals. Through advocacy and education, the LPG strives to enhance and contribute to the development of sound law and ethical legal practice in this evolving field.”
Currently, we have six committees: Bylaws, Electronic Communications, Nominating, Programming, Continuing Legal Education (“CLE”), and Membership Outreach. These committees work on everything from collaboration with other professional groups, to developing courses for continuing education, to making the listserv more robust, to working on increasing membership; all with the objective of enriching and elevating your experience with ASRM and the LPG. As we have grown, our committees are evolving to meet the needs and wants of the LPG.
Furthermore, LPG has become an important part of the educational opportunities with ASRM. At the recent in-person ASRM Scientific Congress in New Orleans, LPG members were involved with five post-graduate courses, three roundtables, and several symposia, interactive sessions, oral abstracts, MedTalks, and plenary sessions.
Our members were also involved in assisting ASRM and the Practice Committee in creating an updated more inclusive definition on infertility which was released by ASRM on October 15, 2023.
The LPG discussion board and website is running well. We encourage all of you to utilize the website to find and share resources and to post questions so that we can learn from each other, support each other, support parties going through ART, and maintain the highest possible ethical standards for the ART field as a whole. We’ll also be posting updates and announcements throughout the year on the site, so stay tuned.
The LPG Board meets monthly in an ongoing attempt to maximize benefit to you, our members, and expand our presence within ASRM. As always, we are looking for your input and help in continuing to improve the LPG. If you are interested in serving on any of our committees, or have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Best Regards,
Lila M. Seif, J.D.
LPG Chair 2023-2024