Ms Maeve Delargy:

I thank the Senator for her question on step-parent adoption and the appropriateness of that process for surrogacy. Before we get into whether it is possible or not, I would start by saying that it is not really appropriate in these cases. These intending parents are already parents of their child and it would be essentially asking them to adopt their own child. Particularly where there is a genetic link, it does not make sense to go through the adoption process.

Let us look at what is actually involved in getting an adoption order. It is an invasive process, it is time consuming and it results in a declaration of eligibility and suitability, but such a declaration would not be given in cases where there is an underlying medical condition for one of the parents. It is often the reason, as we have heard from the stories today, parents have to go down the route of surrogacy, in that there is an underlying condition and that declaration would not be given.

I would also point out that a step-parent adoption is not an option for people who have used assisted reproduction because the adoption authority is not making those orders at present in the absence of legislation. I would also emphasise the fact that in the proposed legislation there is a surrogacy register and all the details of the surrogate will be on it, available to the parents and available to the child, and that hugely important role, as pointed out today, will be recognised, formalised and recorded so that information is available to all parties.

It was stated by another witness that adoption has been used, particularly in cases in the US where the couple is potentially moving between states. Adoption can be a stronger formulisation of the parental rights in that situation where same-sex marriage is allowed in one state and not in another, and that might be the reason one would use it there, but in terms of Europe there is recent case law from the European Court of Justice in relation to mutual recognition of parenthood in same-sex families between the EU countries. Therefore, it just would not be appropriate or required here.