Journal

Last night I watched the Compass documentary on surrogacy. I am becoming an expert on all things related to ART. (Or, I am trying my hardest to be, but the crossover of state and federal laws means unravelling stories that are bound up in red-tape.)

A couple, who were unable to carry a child because of a medical condition, asked the woman’s sister-in-law if she would act as a surrogate of their child. The child is genetically the child of the mother and father who would be parenting the child. The surrogate is not genetically linked to the child. The surrogacy was eventually successful and the couple now have a little boy.

The social and genetic parents (and I wish I could remember what state they were in. I think NSW. The transcripts are not yet up on the ABC site) of the little boy are not considered the legal parents. The surrogate and her husband, who is the brother of the genetic mother, are considered to be the little boy’s legal parents. Which means, among other things, that his actual parents can’t consent to medical treatment, be listed on the birth certificate etc etc etc yada yada

It’s another example of laws not reflecting the changes in ART & families over the past 20 or so years. While the ethicists debate whether or not these child should exist, these children already do exist. The debate really needs to be moved towards changing laws that discriminate against the children conceived in ways other than the norm.

In other news we have a meeting with Marsha Thomson tomorrow in the afternoon. I’ll tell her you said hi.

Tags: fambly //