Surrogacy bill proposed

The Lobby welcomes NSW Attorney-General John Hatzistergos’ announcement the NSW Government will introduce legislation that will allow commissioning parent/s of children born through altruistic surrogacy arrangements to apply to become the legal parents of their child/ren.

There is limited regulation of altruistic surrogacy. There is no option available to parties to a surrogacy arrangement to transfer parentage to the intended parent/s. Commissioning parents can only apply for a parenting order, which doesn’t confer parentage, only limited parenting responsibilities, or they can apply to adopt children in their care.

The new surrogacy bill proposes to establish a transfer of parentage scheme, allowing a birth mother and her partner, if any, to relinquish their parenting rights in favour of intending parents. The bill proposes to allow all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexuality, eligibility to apply for a parentage order as long as they satisfy criteria currently being finalised by the Attorney-General.

The Government has limited its consideration of surrogacy legislation to altruistic arrangements. The NSW Assisted Reproductive Technology Act 2007 prohibits commercial surrogacy.

The GLRL has campaigned for the recognition of both altruistic and commercial surrogacy agreements in foreign jurisdictions where it is legal, recognising that it is in the best interests of children to have the legal recognition of their parent/s.The GLRL will continue to work with the Attorney-General to ensure that the new bill does not discriminate against members of our community and aims to serves the best interests of children.

REMINDER: Come to the GLRL Rights Night on Tuesday Sept 27 at the Bank Hotel, Newtown, 7pm to celebrate adoption reform. Members free/ non-members $5.