Donrich Thaldar

Donrich Thaldar is a professor of law at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, where he chairs the Health Law & Ethics Research Interest Group. His research interests are reprolaw and genetics and the law. He is currently principal investigator of an NIH-funded project that investigates the legal aspects of data science in health innovation in Africa. Donrich also has a private law practice, where he specializes in strategic litigation in reprolaw. Before starting his academic career in 2017, he practiced as a litigation lawyer at the Pretoria Bar. He served as legal counsel or as amicus curiae in several landmark cases in the field of reprolaw in South Africa. Some highlights are: The first case that considered the concept ‘designer children’ (2016); the first case of posthumous conception (2018); the first case of gamete withdrawal from a comatose person (2020); and the first case about the enforceability of a sperm donor agreement (2021); and a successful legal challenge to the constitutionality of the statutory prohibition on non-medical preimplantation sex selection (2022).