Western Australia currently uses legislation dealing with human reproductive technology, artificial conception and adoption to regulate surrogacy, but new legislation before State Parliament could provide an integrated legal framework for surrogacy arrangements. If the Surrogacy Bill 2007 is passed, WA would join the ACT, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Queensland as a state/territory with legislation directly regulating surrogacy arrangements.
Fremantle Minister for Health, Jim McGinty moved the Second Reading Speech, which summarizes the bill as follows:
‘The Surrogacy Bill seeks to balance and protect the interests of all parties to surrogacy arrangements by providing a framework for the best interests of the child to be paramount in any decision about surrogacy and legal parentage, requiring careful preparation and assessment of the parties and preventing surrogacy for commercial gain. Surrogacy is not an issue that affects many couples but it is nonetheless very important for those who desperately want to start a family of their own and are unable to do so for medical reasons. This bill will enable infertile women or couples to realize their dream of raising their children in a loving family’.
Louise Pratt MLC told OUTinPerth that the introduction of the bill was motivated by ‘a number of heterosexual couples who want to use surrogacy, who have moving family circumstances’. As the law now stands, only medically infertile women are eligible for IVF (In vitro fertilisation), a practice where an egg is fertilised outside the woman’s womb. Under the proposed Surrogacy Bill, IVF access would be expanded and allowing a fertile woman to use IVF and carry a child for someone else.
Some groups oppose surrogacy arrangements on the grounds that it can result in excess embryos. Moreover, opponents argue surrogacy arrangements between a child’s birth parents and adoptive parents can result in conflicts if the birth parent decides not to give the child over to the arranged adoptive parent(s).
Ms Pratt said, the bill ‘expands the opportunities for lesbians – but has no effect for gay men. This is because infertile women – irrespective of their sexuality will be able to use a surrogate if they can come to a suitable arrangement’.
In response to Attorney-General Philip Ruddock’s comments calling for harmonisation of surrogacy laws between the states, Ms Pratt said, ‘It is desirable for the nation’s surrogacy laws to be harmonised. However, I would not support this [harmonisation] if it means that people who would have access under Western Australia’s proposed laws are denied access under a nationally harmonised scheme. For example, states like Victoria currently discriminate against single women and lesbians by not giving them access to IVF technology’.
