The Health Committee is seeking public submissions on the Improving Arrangements for Surrogacy Bill. At present, the intending parents of a child born through surrogacy do not have any automatic rights. At the time of birth, the child’s legal parents are the surrogate mother and partner, and a formal adoption process is required to complete the arrangement. The bill seeks to simplify surrogacy arrangements, ensure that information recorded on birth certificates is complete, and provide a mechanism for enforcing surrogacy arrangements.

The bill would amend five Acts and two sets of Regulations. The proposed amendments include:

· specifying when intending parents become the parents of a child born as a result of a surrogacy arrangement that is subject to a surrogacy order

· providing for the appointment of a Surrogacy Registrar, who would establish a register to enable women who are willing to become surrogates to be matched with intending parents

· enforcing the legal obligations of intending parents if they refused to take custody by making them liable for child support, even if they did not have custody of the child.

Tell the Health Committee what you think

Make a submission on the bill by 11.59pm on Wednesday 20 July 2022.

For more details about the bill:

· Read the full content of the bill

· Get more details about the bill

· What’s been said in Parliament about the bill?

· Follow the committee’s Facebook page for updates
 

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