Surrogacy and child welfare
Senator O'Reilly warned that further surrogacy legislation is being advanced without enough regard for children's long-term welfare, and argued commercial surrogacy commodifies children and exploits women. Senator Keogan interjected briefly in support.
I am concerned at what seems to be a co-ordinated effort to advance legislation even further on surrogacy without fully considering what is best for children and their long-term well-being. In fostering it has always been established that where possible the foster parents should try to facilitate and maintain a connection between the child and their biological parents. Adoptive parents are advised of the loss a child experiences through separation from their biological family. Countless studies dealing with early childhood separation highlight the trauma this can cause even in cases where a baby is separated from their mother at birth. To see a recent event on surrogacy being advertised as Babies and Bites was in very poor taste and I was glad to see it was cancelled.
Comment on this
Hatch Fertility is an egg donation and surrogacy agency based in LA. The agency advertised this as an educational seminar with one of the best teams in the business, the business of babies and bites.
It is undeniable that these companies are commodifying children and using surrogacy as a business venture. Commercial surrogacy is illegal in Ireland. Countries like Spain, France and Italy recognise that surrogacy is not in the best interests of the child or the surrogate mother. The EU directive on human trafficking especially references surrogacy as a form of exploitation of women.
Why do we and the agents of the State acknowledge the loss of biological parents to adoptive children but promote it in surrogacy? Why do we recognise the importance of and allow for the continued connection for biological parents during fostering? Why would we intentionally create a scenario where a child's connection to their biological parent is deliberately cut off? This goes against accepted best practice and is not child-centred. I absolutely empathise with couples who wish to start their own families but we cannot place the wants of adults above what is in the best interests of children. We cannot ignore such an important question when it comes to the well-being of our children.