Ms Jeannette Woellenstein:

Regarding compensation and commercial surrogacy, most of the debates centred on the need to prevent and prohibit the sale of children. One must read principle No.15 on transparency in financial matters along with principle No. 14. The approach adopted is that at a minimum, in order to prevent improper financial or other gain in connection with surrogacy, one needs transparency and accountability for any financial transactions. Principle No.15 holds that there should be written accounts and that information should be made available to courts and competent authorities with regard to remuneration, especially involving intermediaries. Remuneration should be reasonable and in line with comparable work in the field. All of the principles are interlinked and one must read them together. They do not take a stand on whether there should be remuneration or not.