Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----and I thank her for her great indulgence. I say that as I stretch it a little bit. Clearly I am exploitative and manipulative.

I thank all members for their contributions but Senator Ruane's contribution has been a seismic shift; I acknowledge her all-time genius but particularly today. I met a couple and when Ms von Meding was on the radio I texted in abruptly about it and did not explain it very well. The couple said they feel they have to be the very best lesbians there ever were in the whole world. I started to cry. I welled up imagining it. It hit home far too much for me that there is this obligation to prove I am not a child-trafficker, not an exploiter of women, that I have not bought my child. I have not done any of those things. You go on a long list and that arises out of the stigma, the stereotyping, the language and the manner in which people are described or allusions to the extreme cases. The norm is the stories in this room and all the other ones behind it. On the one hand it is important we put in due diligence and guidelines but within that we need to not be so restrictive we oblige people to prove a relationship with the surrogate mother where she does not want it, where it may not be a healthy thing for there to be a relationship. Not everyone would necessarily have the boundaries that Ms Wheatley and Ivana have with each other. There is the recognition of vulnerability but also the fact we are going to the heart of identity and ensuring a child knows who he or she is, who his or her genetic parents are, his or her lived experience of who his or her parents are and the precious place in his or her life of the woman who gave birth to him or her. I thank the Chair.