Queensland has joined most of the nation in allowing altruistic surrogacy however those seeking a commercial surrogacy, even overseas, still face criminal prosecution.
It took 17 hours of Parliamentary debate for the legislation to be passed, which allowed heterosexual and same-sex couples, as well as single parents to seek a surrogate birth.
Shadow Attorney General Lawrence Springborg led the debate for the Liberal National Party, which was opposed to same sex couples and single parents becoming intended parents, as well as opposing the issuing of birth certificates in which two women were named as parents.
‘The LNP will not—absolutely will not—be supporting this bill because it is a contamination with the same-sex notions which the Labor Party has put in here,’ Mr Springborg said.
‘…This is about designer families and this is about satisfying the desires of adults. This is not about the children.’
LNP MP Ray Hopper accused same-sex couples of reducing children to the status of ‘pets’, while party colleague Ted Sorensen related the issue to the stolen generation.
‘About 20 years from now will the Prime Minister or the Premier of the day be apologising to the surrogate children as we have apologised to the stolen generation and the war orphans?’ he said.
However the Government rallied back to win the vote 48 to 40, with Treasurer Andrew Fraser calling the Opposition ‘knuckle draggers’.
‘You can no more command the tide than stop the birth of children in the circumstances contemplated by this bill,’ Mr Fraser said.
‘…There is nothing second class about any child I have ever met.’
Brisbane activist group for parents and friends of gays and lesbians, PFLAG, has welcomed the laws.
PFLAG spokeswoman Shelley Argent said it will mean that parents will no longer have to have the argument with their gay children that wanting surrogate children is illegal.
Although Brisbane family lawyer Stephen Page agreed, he said there was still a way to go to overcoming some of the legal hurdles still facing same-sex couples.
‘The reality is that it is altruistic so people are reliant on having a friend or family member who is prepared to be pregnant, go through counseling, seek legal advice – talk about big stuff!’ he said.
While altruistic surrogacy is not often achieved, commercial surrogacy clinics in California rate Australia as their second biggest market behind the United Kingdom, Mr Page said.
Despite the new legislation, Queensland residents who seek a commercial surrogate overseas, like California, could still be prosecuted, he said.
Mr Page has a number of clients, including some gays and lesbians, who have had children using a surrogate.
‘The look of shock on their faces. These are law-abiding citizens who have never thought of engaging in criminal behaviour.’
He also experienced a ‘gob-smacking’ case 20 years ago when a woman, who had acted as a commercial surrogate for a couple, decided to keep the baby.
He said she kept the child and was never prosecuted because she had not committed a criminal offence, which ‘would have been devastating to the intended parents’.
Aja Styles
