Concern over surrogacy guidelines

Guidelines for establishing Irish citizenship for children born abroad to surrogate mothers “badly overlook” ethical concerns surrounding the issue, conservative think tank the Iona Institute has said.

Speaking after Minister for Justice Alan Shatter issued the guidelines, Breda O’Brien, on behalf of the institute, described surrogacy as “almost inherently exploitative” of the surrogate mother and said it created “potentially serious identity issues” for the children involved.

There is no provision for surrogacy in Irish law and the birth mother is always considered the legal mother. But the new guidelines clarify that citizenship can be obtained for a child born abroad to a surrogate mother by establishing that the genetic father of the child is Irish and by obtaining guardianship of the child through the courts.

It is estimated there are several hundred children living in Irish families who were born abroad to surrogate mothers but whose legal status under Irish law is uncertain.

Legislation was recommended in the Report from the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction, published seven years ago, but has never been produced by government.

Mr Shatter said he was looking at updating the law in co-operation with Minister for Health James Reilly.

Ms O’Brien said the Government should properly consider the ethical concerns before pressing ahead with any reform of the law in this area.

Important ethical concerns included that “better-off couples” were “renting the wombs of poorer women” and that surrogacy “splits motherhood between a genetic and biological mother”.

Geoffrey Shannon, Government rapporteur on child protection, welcomed the clarity of the new guidelines, but said they did nothing to regularise the position of a child, for example, born to a surrogate mother abroad with the egg of an Irish woman and donated sperm.

“What happens in the absence of legislation is that the courtroom begins to be used to establish rights, including rights of access,” he said.

New legislation was urgently required to address the legal, social and ethical questions around surrogacy, Mr Shannon said.

“This affects children on a daily basis; nobody wants to see a child stateless.”