Parenting in Context: Family Ethics, Age and Societal Change – CONFERENCE
Family building increasingly takes place within a multifaceted landscape shaped by sociocultural, medical, and legal realities. Questions around particular parental characteristics such as age, reproductive technologies, and shifting family structures call for renewed ethical reflection and interdisciplinary dialogue. This two-day conference, taking place on 15–16 September 2025 at the Ghent University Museum & Botanical Garden (GUM), invites scholars to explore the ethical, legal, and social dimensions of contemporary family building. The event will include the presentation of key findings from the ‘Family Building at Advanced Parental Age: An Interdisciplinary Approach’ (A-PAGE) project — a Swiss-Belgian collaboration between the University of Basel and Ghent University (2021–2025) — alongside contributions from invited speakers addressing emerging issues in the field.
Opening speach by Petra De Sutter (Rector of Ghent University from September 2025)
Keynote speakers:
- Cathy Herbrand (De Montford University)
- Anna Smajdor (University of Oslo)
We welcome submissions from researchers across disciplines interested in the ethics of family life, reproductive choices, age-related dimensions of parenting, and broader questions of kinship and care. Relevant topics include but are not limited to:
- The lived experiences of parents of advanced age and their children
- Ethical and bioethical considerations in reproductive decision-making
- Legal frameworks and policies affecting family building
- Social implications of non-normative family structures
- Welfare of the child arguments in non-normative family structures
- Healthcare professionals’ roles and perspectives in assisting family building using medically-assisted reproduction
- The intersection of advanced parental age with other demographic factors (e.g., gender, race, socio-economic status)
Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words and should clearly state the research question, methodology, findings (if applicable), and relevance to the conference themes. Please send them by noon (CET), on Friday 20 June 2025 to Kato.Verghote@UGent.be. Submissions will be evaluated by a programme committee composing members of the organising institutions, and notifications of acceptance will be issued by Friday 4 July 2025. Selected authors will be invited to present their work at the conference in oral format. In the event of a high number of abstracts received, the option for presenting your research in poster format may be offered.
For more information or inquiries, please contact Kato.Verghote@UGent.be
