Dr. Karen McAuley:

I wish to go back to a point that Dr. Muldoon made earlier that is absolutely central to this entire debate. I refer to the best interests of the child being treated as the paramount consideration. That should be the thread that guides all of the thinking and deliberations in terms of legislating and then in terms of what happens in practice in the context of the legislation. We appreciate these kind of concerns. I am not sure if this is relevant to the Senator’s question about double standards, but we support the prohibition on commercial surrogacy in a domestic context because we regard it as the strongest way to mitigate against the risk of the sale of children. At the same time, we recognise that commercial surrogacy happens in other jurisdictions where we have no control. The key thing, as Dr. Muldoon said, is we need to face that reality and not look away from it. We need to legislate for that reality in a way that upholds the best interest of the child. Not legislating will not serve anybody’s interest, not least the child’s.