Since 2011, over 80 children have been born abroad through surrogacy to intended Irish parents. Over 75% of them were born in India. These figures are based on the parents’ applications for emergency passports.
This “controversial” practice could be partly banned within months from now. In February 2015, the Irish Government approved the drafting of legal provisions governing medically assisted procreation and surrogacy. This bill should be reviewed in early 2017, “before March”, according to the Health Minister.
At the present time, “surrogacy is not illegal in Ireland but it is largely unregulated” and “there is nothing to stop the growth of commercial surrogacy in Ireland”. The bill proposes to ban access to commercial surrogacy but to authorise recourse to “altruistic” surrogacy with “at least one of the intended parents being genetically linked to the child”. The law will establish a procedure to transfer parentage from the surrogate mother to the intended mother, with the name of the biological mother being recorded on the birth certificate.
Independent, Mark O’Regan (13/11/2016)
Photo : Pixabay, DR.