Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Good morning to Ms de Boer-Buquicchio. I thank her for giving of her time this morning. Her opening statement well signposts the two reports that she wrote and submitted to the UN General Assembly. In the conclusions to her 2018 report Ms de Boer-Buquicchio states, "Commercial surrogacy could be conducted in a way that does not constitute sale of children", and she goes on to explore that. In the report we have the detail: that the surrogate mother is the "mother at birth"; that she is under no "legal obligation to participate in the legal or physical transfer of the child"; that the payments must be completed prior to the birth and then there is the post-birth legal transfer; that the surrogate mother can be legally obligated to share parenting of a child but not be obligated to relinquish her status; and that the transfer after birth must be a gratuitous and altruistic act. Ms de Boer-Buquicchio lays out a template there. We are in the difficult position whereby some surrogacies are termed as commercial when there are compensated elements such as the Canadian model. Were we to not facilitate that then same-sex couples in Ireland may not have an option to have children via surrogacy. Can Ms de Boer-Buquicchio confirm that this is generally the order that needs to happen in order for the no-sale element to be constituted within the commercial surrogacy arrangement?