Family Relationships (Surrogacy) Amendment Bill
03/12/2014
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: I thank you, Mr President, and the chamber for the indulgence of allowing me to change the speaking order somewhat. Dignity for Disability is pleased to support the amendments, as it considers it important that we keep with the times as legislators, which we have the opportunity to do in this case. The bill envisages a follow-up process to review the framework and see that it remains in line with community expectations over time.
As members would be aware, the international media focus on the story of ‘baby Gammy’, as he is known, highlighted a range of moral and ethical concerns surrounding the issue of international surrogacy. There are a multitude of human rights issues too, of course, when Australians choose to go overseas and enter into an arrangement with an agency and ultimately with a woman who may be living in extreme poverty and is willing, therefore, to carry a child to have the opportunity to escape that poverty. Such arrangements are clearly exploitative, even though for that woman and her family their lives could be dramatically improved by the money earned through surrogacy.
The number of intended parents heading overseas instead of using domestic surrogacy services or adoption indicates that our policy in this area is failing. Although aspects of these matters fall well outside our jurisdiction, human rights matter whether at home or abroad. Altruistic surrogacy is not new and the provision before us to allow for reimbursement of reasonable costs therefore makes sense. We need to acknowledge that for many couples surrogacy is their best option of having a child. Bringing the practice into the open and allowing regulation protects all parties involved. It is important that appropriate preparatory counselling is available to all parties.
Rather than moving to criminalise overseas compensated surrogacy, the bill seeks to impose regulation on such arrangements. This makes sense but it is difficult to see how it will work in practice because the exploitative nature of overseas practices will not change. All that being said, Dignity for Disability commends the work of the Hon. Mr Dawkins in this area and in bringing these issues before us and thank him for his diligence in consulting with people affected. With those words, I indicate that we will support the bill.
