Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 20 > Chapter 9 - Status of Children of Assisted Conception

• Adult: means a person 18 years of age or more. See Virginia Code 1-203
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Assisted conception: means a pregnancy resulting from any intervening medical technology, whether in vivo or in vitro, which completely or partially replaces sexual intercourse as the means of conception. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Board: means the Board of Conservation and Recreation. See Virginia Code 10.1-705
• City: means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on July 1, 1971, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-208
• Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
• Compensation: means payment of any valuable consideration for services in excess of reasonable medical and ancillary costs. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Cryopreservation: means freezing and storing of gametes and embryos for possible future use in assisted conception. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Donor: means an individual, other than a surrogate, who contributes the sperm or egg used in assisted conception. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Embryo: means the organism resulting from the union of a sperm and an ovum from first cell division until approximately the end of the second month of gestation. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Embryo transfer: means the placing of a viable embryo into the uterus of a gestational mother. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Erosion: means the process of destruction by the action of wind, water, or ice of the land bordering the tidal waters of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 10.1-705
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• Gamete: means either a sperm or an ovum. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Genetic parent: means an individual who contributes a gamete resulting in a conception. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Gestational mother: means the woman who gives birth to a child, regardless of her genetic relationship to the child. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• In vitro: means any process that can be observed in an artificial environment such as a test tube or tissue culture plate. See Virginia Code 20-156
• In vitro fertilization: means the fertilization of ova by sperm in an artificial environment. See Virginia Code 20-156
• In vivo: means any process occurring within the living body. See Virginia Code 20-156
• in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Chapter 42. See Virginia Code 1-257
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• Infertile: means the inability to conceive after one year of unprotected sexual intercourse. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Intended parent: means a married couple or unmarried individual who enters into an agreement with a surrogate under the terms of which such parent will be the parent of any child born to the surrogate through assisted conception regardless of the genetic relationships between the intended parent, the surrogate, and the child. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Legal or contractual custody: means having authority granted by law, contract, or court order to make decisions concerning the use of an embryo. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Locality: means a county, city or town. See Virginia Code 10.1-705
• Month: means a calendar month and "year" means a calendar year. See Virginia Code 1-223
• Ovum: means the female gamete or reproductive cell prior to fertilization. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: shall include individuals, a trust, an estate, a partnership, an association, an order, a corporation, or any other legal or commercial entity;

  6. See Virginia Code 8.01-2

• Person: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Program: means the provisions of the Public Beach Conservation and Development Act. See Virginia Code 10.1-705
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Reasonable medical and ancillary costs: means the costs of the performance of assisted conception, the costs of prenatal maternal health care, the costs of maternal and child health care for a reasonable postpartum period, the reasonable costs for medications and maternity clothes, and any additional and reasonable costs for housing and other living expenses attributable to the pregnancy. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Sheriff: shall include deputy sheriffs and such other persons designated in § 15. See Virginia Code 8.01-2
• Sperm: means the male gametes or reproductive cells which impregnate the ova. See Virginia Code 20-156
• State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
• state forest: means lands acquired for the Commonwealth by purchase, gift or lease pursuant to this section. See Virginia Code 10.1-1107
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Supreme Court: means the Supreme Court of Virginia. See Virginia Code 1-249
• Surrogacy contract: means an agreement between the intended parent, a surrogate, and her spouse, if any, in which the surrogate agrees to be impregnated through the use of assisted conception, to carry any resulting fetus, and to relinquish to the intended parent the custody of and parental rights to any resulting child. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Surrogate: means any adult woman who agrees to bear a child carried for the intended parent. See Virginia Code 20-156
• sworn: means "affirm" or "affirmed. See Virginia Code 1-250
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• United States: includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-255
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.