Ms Sara Cohen:

I wish committee members a good morning from Toronto, Canada. My name is Sara Cohen and my practice is Fertility Law Canada. For the past 12 years, I have practised exclusively in the area of fertility law and I am recognised as one of the leading fertility lawyers in Canada. I have provided independent legal advice to more than 2,000 participants of gestational surrogacy in Canada, to both Canadian international intended parents as well as to Canadian surrogates. I am grateful and honoured to be invited to share my experience with the committee.

The committee asked me to discuss how to best prevent the exploitation or coercion of gestational surrogates. During this opening statement, I will focus on my personal experience. However, in my briefing document, I provided several academic articles and other resources to help members.

Perhaps the reason I am most proud of my role in gestational surrogacy in Canada is my belief that the process is ethical and protects the well-being of all parties involved, as well as those of the resulting child. I imagine that we all agree that surrogacy cannot be ethical where surrogates are exploited or coerced to participate. This is antithetical to my experience of surrogacy in Canada. In fact, I find the opposite to be true. Almost without exception, surrogates tend to find the experience rewarding and empowering. They frequently have long relationships with intended parents and the resulting child long after the birth. Many gestational surrogates have such positive experiences that they choose to participate in subsequent journeys.

Surrogacy in Canada is recognised and regulated both federally, in the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, and provincially. Surrogacy in Canada is altruistic and commercialised surrogacy is prohibited by federal law. However, the Canadian concept of altruism allows surrogates to be reimbursed for their reasonable expenses, where such expense is incurred as a result of the surrogacy. Each province handles legal parentage of a child born through surrogacy a little bit differently and, with the exception of the province of Quebec, all are surrogacy-friendly. However, in all provinces, the surrogate must provide her consent not to be a parent of the child not only before transfer of the embryo to her body but again following the child's birth.

Part of the reason I believe surrogacy in Canada is not coercive or exploitative is simply because of the socioeconomic realities of Canadian women, which are dissimilar to those of women in Kenya, Mexico or other such surrogacy destinations, but far more similar to American and British women. Canadian women have agency over their bodies, access to social services and free healthcare. In my experience and as the research bears out, surrogates in Canada tend to be Caucasian, educated, financially secure, have emotional and other support available to them and are English-speaking. Often, I find them to be employed in helping professions, such as nurses, midwives, teachers or early childhood educators. They do not need to do this but they want to do this.

Canadian gestational surrogates are required to undergo psychological counselling, obtain independent legal advice, undergo medical screening and enter into a written legal agreement with the intended parents - all prior to the transfer of an embryo to her body. They retain decision-making rights over their bodies throughout the process. I find that the surrogates are very well informed about surrogacy, including the medical, legal and psychological procedures, risks and expectations, prior to an embryo transfer. Perhaps it is for these reasons that there are no cases in Canada where a surrogate has ever tried to keep the baby.

Surrogacy in Canada is about relationships. In practice, it is the surrogate who chooses the intended parents for whom-----