Ms Caoimhe Nic Dhomhnaill:

I thank members for inviting me to join them this morning. I apologise for not being able to make it in person. Advances in reproductive technologies present challenges to us all.

Medical advances and new technologies have plunged mental health professionals and legal professionals into ethical and psychological quandaries that were unimagined prior to the birth of Louise Brown, the firstborn IVF baby, in 1978.

For nearly a century, the world of psychology believed that the welfare of children was best served in a family where a child lived with two biological heterosexual parents. This view has been challenged by recent advancements in technology, which have invited us all to embrace a much wider and more inclusive definition of "family". Psychology has been playing catch-up with medical advances, and all of the advances in thinking need to be enshrined in our legislation.

Mental health professionals have voiced many concerns but, over time, the longitudinal studies in the areas of surrogacy and other assisted technologies have allayed some of these. I will briefly set out some of the concerns psychologists had when these technologies became more widely available. Would the array of new family forms impact negatively on parent-child relationships and children's psychological development? Would children with surrogate mothers have some sense of having two mothers, which might then impact on their attachment to their social-biological mothers? Would some of the challenges that arise in adoption arise with surrogacy? In 2011, Dr. David Brodzinsky highlighted that secrecy about origins and non-disclosure of adoption were associated with poorer outcomes for adopted children. This prompted concerns about how information about assisted conceptions might be imparted to children. Would these families be stigmatised or marginalised by societal norms and culture if there was an ethos of disclosure? How could legislation respect the child's right to his or her history and identity and ensure marginalisation was not a feature? How could best practice in the provision of transparency and access to records be ensured?