Ms Tanya Ward:

In considering the best interests of the child, I do not think a pre-birth assessment would suffice. An assessment would have to be done after birth. Some of the tests could be done in a pre-birth process but one of the key things the special rapporteur talked about was the need to ensure that no money changed hands in the transfer of the child and that no illicit practices took place. There are many things that could go wrong. We must provide a basis to ensure all of those things have been picked up to ensure X or Y have not happened.

I am sure certain cases have been discussed by the committee. There is an American case where a woman became pregnant with three children and the commissioning father wanted two children and not three. He wanted the third to be aborted during gestation. The woman did not want to do that. The necessity for bodily integrity protects against those kinds of things and the legislation is clear that it will be the woman's decision as to what happens in those kinds of circumstances. However, there are other things that can happen in between and a post-birth assessment is required to pick up on those.