Ms Jeannette Woellenstein:

As we said previously, many government officials participated in our consultations, many of whom were from Legislatures that permit and are permissive of surrogacy. Of course, they shared certain concerns that their current legislation was not really in line with the principles but the principles are supposed to be aspirational. They are supposed to protect the rights of children born through surrogacy. Many issues were raised but there was always the hope that this might eventually lead to changes in legislation and policy with the aim of protecting the rights of children born through surrogacy. These concerns were taken into account and they led to changes in the exact formulation of the principles. As one can imagine, over the course of five years the principles changed extensively. The wording and the approach were reviewed because we always had this reality check and feedback from practitioners in different Legislatures. Of course, it is a balancing act. The principles are supposed to be aspirational. They are not supposed to be too prescriptive. That was the approach with regard to the principles and the hope is that they lead to concrete changes in practice.