Approval of surrogacy legislation will give certainty and legal protection to intended parents and children – Seery Kearney

The approval of amendments to surrogacy legislation will give much needed certainty and legal protection to intended parents and children, according to a Fine Gael Senator.

Senator Mary Seery Kearney welcomed news today that the Minister for Health received Cabinet approval for legislative amendments to the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill which will provide for International Surrogacy.

Senator Seery Kearney, a long-time campaigner on the issue of surrogacy and advocate for families, said: “While I haven’t seen the specific provisions as of yet, I understand that these amendments will be brought to the Committee stage of the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill that passed second stage in the Dáil last year.

“At that time, the Bill omitted international surrogacy provisions and families have waited anxiously for the legal framework to protect all parties in the surrogacy journey, and the legislative pathway to full parental recognition for both intended parents.

“Currently, children born via surrogacy do not have a route to life-long parental recognition of their second parent, as the State will only recognise the biological father and the Surrogate who has given birth to the child as the child’s parents.

“Future arrangements are expected to be based on the recommendations of the International Surrogacy Committee, of which I was a member, that imposes a pre-conception checking mechanism on parents before starting their surrogacy journey. This mechanism will focus on safeguards for the rights of the Surrogate, the right of identity of the child and the rights of the intending parents.

“This will be followed by a post birth review by the Irish judiciary to ensure that all rights are vindicated before any parental order is given. The legislation will also provide a three year window for parents of children born via surrogacy to make an application to the High Court for the parental order for the child’s second parent.

Senator Seery Kearney continued: “The Department of Health is leading this legislation, but it is the culmination of the work of the Minister for Justice and Minister for Children also. I am grateful to those three departments for all of the hard work in bringing us to this point.

“There is anxiety in the surrogacy community that retrospective applications to the High Court may be prohibitively expensive, but assistance can be given by means of templates and clear advice to enable parents to make the application as lay litigants. I know that solicitors practicing in this area have given assurances that they will assist in streamlining procedures as much as they possibly can.

“There is also anxiety amongst same sex couples who do not have the same range of countries they can travel to for surrogacy in case the provisions are so restrictive that they will effectively be prohibited from pursuing surrogacy to grow their families outside of Ireland.

“It has been a long road of solid advocacy by me and the surrogacy advocacy groups including Irish Families Through Surrogacy and Irish Gay Dads.  All of our children deserve equality before the law and a right to live long legal relationships with both of their parents,” Senator Seery Kearney concluded.