As calls grow for a national surrogacy framework, New South Wales is once again confronting a difficult question: should the creation of a child ever be treated as a service? Source: The Catholic Weekly.
The NSW Legislative Council’s Select Committee on fertility support and assisted reproductive treatment last week began public hearings into the issue.
I appeared as a witness on behalf of the Catholic Women’s League Australia (NSW), where we argued that both commercial and altruistic surrogacy raise serious ethical concerns that regulation alone cannot resolve.
The federal Government has advocated for a national framework on surrogacy, given the patchwork of laws that exist across the states and territories. Currently, the Surrogacy Act 2010 permits altruistic surrogacy in New South Wales.
This means a couple can come to an agreement with a woman to carry a child for them, who may or may not be genetically linked to her.
After she agrees to relinquish the child to the “commissioning parents”, the court makes a parentage order transferring care of the child to them, and they are then listed as the child’s parents on the birth certificate. Other than reasonable expenses, the surrogate mother is not paid for her services.
A few hundred children are born each year as a result of altruistic surrogacy, but this pales in comparison to those born via commercial surrogacy overseas.
From those giving evidence last week, the field can be described as evenly split. Faith-based groups, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, and some feminist groups have taken an abolitionist stance against the legalisation of commercial surrogacy.
Arguments include the dignity of a woman not to have her body used as an instrument for others; that, notwithstanding the pain associated with being unable to naturally conceive a child, no one has a right to a child; and that the child has a right to a fully human origin and to know their parents. The CWL takes an abolitionist position on both altruistic and commercial surrogacy.
Surrogacy seeks to change the mindset of what a family is. A child is a gift, not an article of commerce. It degrades human reproduction, shatters the mother-child bond created during the unique time of pregnancy, and places the desires of adults for a child above the dignity of the child and their best interests.
Dr Anna Walsh is a Lecturer, School of Law (Sydney Campus) at the University of Notre Dame Australia.
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Surrogacy cannot be made ethical through regulation alone (By Anna Walsh, The Catholic Weekly)
