Raquel Ferreira Vieira, Senior Associate at VCA, spoke at the first online workshop “Beginning of Life” (Início da Vida) on 28 October. The workshop was hosted by the University of Minho School of Law as part of the research project “Health & Law: Perspectives in Dialogue”.
Her talk took on a question the law cannot settle on its own: what happens between surrogacy being written into law and surrogacy working in practice?
About the project
The project belongs to JusGov, the University of Minho’s Research Centre for Justice and Governance. Its starting point is that health questions are complex, and they are best answered when law works alongside the other disciplines that study them. Through 2028, a series of online workshops will follow these questions from the beginning of life to its end.
This first session focused on medically assisted reproduction, surrogacy and reproductive justice. The programme was as follows:
- Elsa Sofia Azevedo, Lawyer: the best interests of the future child in assisted reproduction, between reproductive autonomy and child protection
- Raquel Ferreira Vieira, VCA and Invited Assistant Professor at the Lisbon School of Law, Universidade Católica Portuguesa: surrogacy in Portugal, from legal recognition to the challenges of putting it into practice
- Joana Pimentel Alves, Rita Araújo and Bibiana Garcez, Communication and Society Research Centre, University of Minho: obstetric violence, public policy and reproductive justice in Portugal
The session was moderated by Miriam Rocha, Assistant Professor at the University of Minho School of Law.
Five years of research
Portuguese law provides for surrogacy. How it is applied, however, still raises legal, ethical and practical questions.
Raquel knows these questions closely. She spent the last five years on them in her doctoral thesis, completed this year with distinction at the University of Porto Faculty of Law. At Universidade Católica, she teaches family law, parentage and parental responsibilities, and succession law. Since September she has been part of VCA’s Litigation and Arbitration Department, where she works mainly on family and succession matters.
Behind every question of parentage there is a family, and often a story that crosses borders. Following these debates closely helps us anticipate what reaches the families we advise, and respond with both rigour and care.
Our approach
At VCA, we look at each client as a whole. Family, parentage and succession questions rarely come alone. They connect with assets, residence and long-term planning. Having people on our team who research and teach these subjects lets us give fuller answers.
