Professor Conor O'Mahony:

There is a conversation to be had on that point and it is being had in the academic literature. Conversations are ongoing about the limits of paternalism in this area. There are, broadly speaking, two camps, one of which expresses concern about potential exploitation of surrogate mothers and the other of which expresses the view to which the Senator just alluded. The latter view is that if we are to recognise people's autonomy and agency in making these decisions and appropriate safeguards are in place, the idea that somebody who decides to engage in surrogacy should be disqualified from receiving any economic reward for making that decision would not sit well with the more general principles around agency, autonomy and so on. That is a debate to be had. It did not form part of my report because it was not part of the terms of reference. It is not part of my remit as special rapporteur on child protection. I was coming at the issue specifically from a children's rights angle.

The most relevant recommendation in the context of the Senator's question was the recommendation that domestic surrogacy should be altruistic only. That recommendation was to ensure that our domestic framework, the laws which we can pass and over which we have control, meet the highest standards around the laws governing the sale of children. It was specifically in response to some of the output of the UN special rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children and seeking to ensure that our laws meet those requirements to the highest possible extent. That is one view. Through a broader lens, the separate debate to which the Senator referred is also going on.