Ms Julie Ahern:

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is clear on that. Children should not be discriminated against based on the method of their birth. Not regulating for international surrogacy could be argued as de factodiscrimination against children who are born internationally and not domestically. It would be in the best interests of children that we have a regulatory system. The UN special rapporteur and all the UN bodies are quite clear that we need to regulate for international and national surrogacy. Leaving one out can create big difficulties for children and particularly for the implementation of their rights.