IRELAND REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL SURROGACY PUBLISHED
Can Ireland be a World Leader in Recognising and Regulating International Surrogacy
The report of the Joint Oireachtas on International Surrogacy was published on Wednesday 6th July 2022, well within the three-month time frame given to the Committee to consider this complex area and report.
I have watched the Committee at work. I attended before the Committee, and if nothing else this Committee must be commended for their dedication and the hard work which they put into investigating international surrogacy, examining the procedures, laws and regulations in multiple jurisdictions and producing this landmark Report.
In 2005 the Report of the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction was published. That report recommended that intending parents should be parents under Irish law. It also recommended the introduction of legislation. Seventeen years and three Oireachtas reports later we are still waiting for legislation. So why should this report be any different?
The Health, (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022 was published this year. It contains provision for the recognition of domestic surrogacy arrangements. Sadly, it contains no provision for the recognition of parent child relationships arising from an international surrogacy arrangement. Nor does it contain provision for retrospective recognition of such relationships in respect of existing Irish children born through surrogacy. The Committee on International Surrogacy was established to consider these glaring omissions and make recommendations on how international and retrospective surrogacy might be incorporated into the Bill.
The report is positive. It recognises that surrogacy is a form of AHR and that banning international surrogacy will not stop people going abroad to have children through surrogacy. It proposes a framework for the recognition of intending parents as the parents of children born abroad through surrogacy.
By endorsing the recommendations HERE and including them in the draft legislation Ireland could become a world leader.
