“WHEN YOU STEP off the plane in Dublin, you’re not their mother. In the eyes of the State, you’re not their mother. After everything that it’s taken to bring them into the world, you’re not their mother. And that’s a horrible feeling.”
While waiting she cannot sign consent forms for school, which the twins are starting in September, or medical procedures. When granted, issues with inheritance can arise and, according to McCarthy, if a couple split up “you start off on a very uneven keel in a custody battle” as guardianship can be taken away by the court.
The Bill on assisted human reproduction “encompasses the regulation, for the first time in Ireland, of a wide range of practices, including domestic surrogacy”, the DOH spokesperson added. “The issue of infertility and how it is overcome is very commonplace and much more regular and normal than people think it is so I think it is necessary for people like me to speak out in that regard.”Concern over legislation
Sara Byrne told Noteworthy that the advocacy group have met with a number of politicians in recent weeks who have said the Bill may be presented to the Houses of the Oireachtas in its current format, with amendments then added at a later stage. This would mean that the Bill could be published as it stands with the international element addressed “when it was at Committee stage”.
The spokesperson for the Department of Children added that the responsibility for the drafting “is a matter for the Minister for Health” and it will continue to engage with other Departments “to ensure that any legislation in the area vindicates the rights and best interests of the child”.The provisions of the Bill include at least one of the intending parents having to be genetically related to the child and surrogacy being permitted on an altruistic basis.
It’s going to have to be done. Otherwise, we will end up with an Irish solution to an Irish problem… so there has to be courage by Government in order to ensure that we do provide for international surrogacy. ‘The last thing we needed’ Sara Byrne from Irish Families Through Surrogacy also had a child through surrogacy.
She was delighted when her first surrogate became pregnant the previous year as they “had been through so much to get to that point” but unfortunately this ended in miscarriage.
noteworthy_ie Has noteworthy_ie investigated the impact of surrogacy on mothers, ir on the women who go through 9 months of pregnancy and give birth to babies ?