Criminalising surrogacy won’t help anyone
The NSW Government has made it illegal for people to engage in commercial surrogacy agreements overseas, under the new Surrogacy Bill.
The new law is designed to confer parentage rights to couples and individuals who engage in altruistic surrogacy agreements, regardless of their sexual orientation and without the need of an adoption application. Altruistic surrogacy is a practice which excludes commercial payment.
Couples and individuals, who fail to find an altruistic surrogate parent and travel overseas to make commercial agreements, will face up to two years of jail and a fine of more than 100 thousand dollars.
Prior to amendment, the Bill already made commercial surrogacy illegal in NSW and only recognised altruistic surrogacy as lawful.
But Community Services Minister Linda Burney moved to extend criminal sanctions to commercial agreements reached overseas.
She said the amendment will ensure parentage rights are given to people who engage in altruistic surrogacy only.
“Without an extra-territorial clause prohibiting overseas surrogacy arrangements, the principle of altruistic surrogacy and requirements for the granting of a parentage order will be undermined. It is likely to encourage such persons to make these arrangements outside Australia where measures that promote the best interests of children and prevent exploitation for commercial gain may not be in place,” she said.
Both houses of parliament approved the amendment which raises concerns from several parenting groups and other political forces.
A Greens spokesperson said the amendment came as a surprise to Labor and Greens’ members alike, as the previous version of the bill didn’t mention overseas agreements at all.
“The amendment came completely without notice. We had Labor MPs coming to us and asking ‘what do you think about it?’ The Labor party wasn’t even made aware of what was coming,” he said.
Prior to the amendment, Greens MP David Shoebridge said the Surrogacy Bill was in the child’s best interests, but the new version brings NSW “two steps back”.
He says it undermines children’s rights to have a family, by exposing their parents to criminal sanctions, and it will drive people into underground practices.
“What began as progressive legislation giving equal rights to all children has ended up as regressive legislation which will force parents underground and create uncertainty around many children’s parenting.”
“You don’t protect the rights of children by criminalising their parents,” Mr Shoebridge said.
BY MARINA FRERI
