Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Some 400 paternal orders are made each year through the English court system. This is with regard to Ms Gamble's statement, in which she said half of those are through UK surrogacy agreements and the other half are through international agreements. Further on then she said that 69% are international surrogacy arrangements. I want Ms Gamble to correct the actual figure on that. Is it 50% or is it 69%? The international surrogacy arrangement parental order extinguishes the motherhood of the overseas surrogate and transfers it to the intended parents. The UK birth certificate, therefore, reflects the intending parent and legal guardian. How does she believe that is in the best interest of the child? How does she believe it is even ethical to erase the birth mother from the process? That is the first issue.

Is Ms Gamble familiar with the Spanish case? There was a court case in Spain on 10 April that ruled that commercial surrogacy constitutes unacceptable exploitation of both the child and biological mother. The case involved a Spanish woman who made a contract with a surrogate in Mexico in 2015 to bear a child through a surrogacy agency. The court declared that adoption was the better option for protecting the best interests of the child. What is Ms Gamble's view on adoption being a better option rather than surrogacy? With regard to international surrogacy being ethical, basically, what we are saying is that it is okay to give a green light to women in the USA or Ukraine, and exploit the women there but not here in Ireland. This is a double standard. No feminist woman would be happy to stand over that at all. To exploit women anywhere in our world for commercial reasons is wrong, so-----