Surrogacy - at what cost?
Opinion
The topic of surrogacy has been in the spotlight again as the Australian Law Reform Commission reviews the current laws with a view to reducing barriers to couples seeking to have a child this way in Australia.
It’s an emotive and complex issue but one that needs to be discussed from an ethical and moral perspective.
A recent ABC online story featured an interview with gay couple Daniel and Michael who took ‘four years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring their daughter Spencer into the world’, using an unpaid surrogate mother from Canada.
There are other ‘good news’ stories popping up in relation to surrogacy, suggesting growing support for making it easier for people to source surrogate mothers within Australia.
Traditional surrogacy involves the surrogate using her own eggs and in Australia the ‘commissioning’ parents are allowed to reimburse the birth mother’s costs. When fertility clinics are used to transfer embryos to the surrogate (gestational surrogacy), those costs are also covered by the commissioning parents. Commercial surrogacy, that is, paying the birth mother more than the cost of reimbursements, is currently illegal.
The law becomes less clear when couples use or ‘commission’ surrogate mothers from overseas countries, including those where commercial surrogacy is legal.
The states of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia allow couples to commission overseas surrogates, despite the ban on commercial surrogacy. This practice is more common than altruistic surrogacies which usually take place between relatives or friends.
The ALRC’s scoping paper states that ‘the rights and best interests of the child born through surrogacy are widely regarded as the most important consideration throughout the surrogacy process, and are rights Australia has a responsibility to uphold’.
But it’s all too easy to overlook the rights of the voiceless child when there are other considerations at play, such as the rights of same sex couples or the rights of couples who are struggling to conceive.
As a mother, and now grandmother, it’s hard to fathom how a woman can give up the child they have carried and nurtured for nine months – especially if that child is going to another country and might never be seen again. In my experience, there is nothing more pure than the unconditional love of a mother for her child.
In the case of altruistic surrogacy, I am sure those who do this for a loved one are coming from a good place. I have read about cases where the child stays in regular contact with the biological mother and everything is seemingly rosy.
But it still begs the question as to whether it is morally right. Is it okay for a child to be seen as someone’s property and part of a contractual arrangement rather than intrinsically connected to his or her birth mother?
While commerical surrogacy is allowed in some countries, including the United States, there are also nations such as France, Germany and Italy that have banned any form of surrogacy – commercial and altruistic.
Writing in Eureka Street recently, Dr Erica Cervini says she can understand the “ache” infertile couples feel when they can’t have children. She herself is in that category.
‘But this longing for a baby can’t supersede the human needs, emotions and dignity of surrogates and babies,’ she writes.
Referring to sites devoted to surrogacy advocacy in Australia and overseas, and literature from overseas companies that organise surrogacies, Dr Cervini says you could be forgiven for thinking surrogacy is mainly focused on intended parents’ needs.
Similarly, testimonials in the media ‘lead us to believe that surrogacy is something we should all rejoice in and agree with’.
But Dr Cervini says behind the promises to intended Australian parents looking overseas to find a surrogate, the reality is that ‘these women are usually poor’.
‘Even in the domestic US commercial market surrogates need money,’ she writes.
‘One Texan surrogate admits on TikTok that she was attracted to commercial surrogacy because she was broke and needed the money for her and her baby to live on.’
The number of commercial surrogacies in the US has risen dramatically in recent years and is becoming big business. Global Markets Insights estimates the worldwide surrogacy industry was worth $US22 billion in 2022 and will grow to $US129 billion by 2032.
There is increasing evidence of exploitation of victims of human trafficking in countries where commercial surrogacy is allowed. A woman seeking asylum and with no legal status is an easy target for unscrupulous surrogacy agencies.
The late Pope Francis was a vocal opponent of human trafficking and in 2024 he called for a worldwide ban on surrogacy on the grounds it was a ‘grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child’.
It is good to see the Australian Catholic Bishops follow Pope Francis’ lead and advocate strongly for a surrogacy ban in Australia. But we ordinary Catholics also need to be fully informed on this important issue and be prepared to raise our voice for the voiceless before it’s too late.
