Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My view on issues like that is that some of it is prohibition by stealth at times. I felt the first iteration of the assisted human reproduction Bill was going down that route.

Dr. Mulligan talked about the donor end of things and surrogacy being transparent. By its very nature, it is obligatory to be transparent about it. This is really a matter of record rather than a question as such. Many people are listening to this and learning about the nuances and the complexities of surrogacy for the first time. For people who are in it, however, there are age-appropriate books, which are read to children and explain about the koala bear's pouch and what happened and all of that, so that from the moment a baby is born, he or she is aware of his or her gestational origins. Then, where it is appropriate, there are donor-assisted conception networks that provide great support. Many Irish couples and families are very much involved and engaged in that. That is an important thing for people to hear and understand.

At the core of this is an issue around infertility that arises through a medical or social inability to carry a baby to full term. The argument for many would be that medical infertility is a disability and, therefore, certain rights and entitlements should flow from that. In the international definition of a disability, however, the fact that it can be addressed medically means that it is not a disability because it is not permanent. It can be overcome via IVF or fertility treatment. People on the infertility journey have this difficulty of being caught in private medicine, which is what we addressed before. Regarding solutions coming out of it, as we stand at this moment, intended mothers of surrogate-born children have no parental rights. We need to address that.

One of the suggestions from the French case was that there would be a route via adoption. One of the difficulties along the way is that the infertility came about due to very serious illnesses and, therefore, those women are barred from adoption by virtue of the seriousness of their illness. Adoption, therefore, is not always a solution there.

The other difficulty with adoption for that second parent, which a solution might address, is that it gives the first parent, that is, the genetic and biological parent or father - let us name him for what he is - a power in that relationship. That power has often been abused. We need to also address that. There are situations in Ireland where babies have been born via surrogacy and that marriage has afterwards broken down. The lack of status of women in that marriage has been weaponised in the negotiation for the break-up of that marriage. Adoption, if it is used to be a solution, is a notoriously long and difficult in Ireland. Most people who have gone through surrogacy have already gone down that route and had an appalling experience of it. Does Dr. Mulligan have any comments on adoption in light of all that?