‘Much welcomed milestone’ – Cabinet has approved legislation relating to surrogacy

Jody Coffey

Cabinet has today approved the legislation.

Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, has announced that the Government has decided to approve text of the proposed Committee Stage Amendments (CSAs) to the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022.

This will include new provisions concerning the regulation of international surrogacy agreements and the recognition of certain past surrogacy arrangements.

For the first time, this far-reaching legislation will embrace a vast range of practices that fall under this jurisdiction.

These include gamete and embryo donation for assisted human reproduction (AHR) and research, domestic altruistic surrogacy, pre-implantation genetic testing of embryos, posthumous assisted human reproduction, and embryo and stem cell research.

In his announcement, Minister Donnelly welcomed the decision and what it will mean for many families in Ireland.

“For many families around the country today’s progress on this legislation is an important and much welcomed milestone.

“I’ve made completing the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill an absolute priority, and these amendments mark another significant step now on delivering our Programme for Government commitment.

The Health Minister adds that by amending this legislation, it will protect the rights and safety of children, parent, and all those involved in a surrogacy arrangement,

“Having met many of them, I know how long they’ve fought for this progress. I’m now referring the legislation to the Oireachtas Committee on Health and believe we will make further headway in January.

“In addition to the ground-breaking new surrogacy provisions to be added to the Bill, it will also have the potential to provide hundreds of Irish families with a route to formal recognition by the State of surrogacy arrangements they have undertaken, or will undertake, either domestically or in other jurisdictions.”

The Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, also applauded the decision, adding that today marks ‘an important step in providing legal clarity for so many families and children’.

“The amendments approved by Government set out an approach to international surrogacy and past surrogacy arrangements that meets the objectives and recommendations of the Report of the Special Oireachtas Joint Committee on International Surrogacy.

“The new legislative provisions will prioritise the protection of the rights, interests and welfare of children and surrogate mothers, and will greatly benefit families with children born through surrogacy.”

The decision to approve text of Committee Stage Amendments to the Health AHR Bill will see a regulatory framework for both domestic and international surrogacy arrangements introduced, according to Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman.

He added that ‘this positive step’ would ensure these proposed provisions will introduce the appropriate and necessary safeguards to ensure that all parties are protected.”

It is anticipated that the finalised and approved legiative prosvisions concerning internaiyonal surrogact will be in be included in the Bill at Committee Stage.

It is also intended that measures to allow the possibility for retrospective recognition of parentage in respect of domestic and international surrogacy arrangements will also be included.

Prolific Irish parents, such as Rosanna Davison and Brian Dowling and their respective partners, have long been advocating and fighting for change in Ireland’s legislation surrounding surrogacy.

Rosanna, former Miss World, and her husband Wes Quirke, welcomed their daughter Sophia, who was born via gestational surrogate in 2019.

Meanwhile Brian, host of the Six O’Clock Show, and his husband, Arthur Gourounlian, welcomed their daughter Blake Maria Rose in 2022.

Brian’s sister, Aoife, acted as a surrogate for the couple.

Speaking to the Irish Independent last month, the broadcaster said they were still fighting for both of their names to be put on their daughter’s birth certificate.

“Our family is not accepted here in Ireland. We’re still fighting,” Brian said.

“A normal legal right for any child born in Ireland is that their one legal document that they have for the rest of their life is the birth cert, and we’re still fighting to try and get one of our names on that birth cert. How is that right?”