Ms Sara Cohen:

I noticed that and I apologise. I will back up one sentence. It is the surrogate who chooses the intended parents for whom she will carry, and not the other way around. The women are not coerced or exploited and they do this because they want to. They tend to desire and experience meaningful, collaborative and caring relationships with the intended parents throughout the pregnancy and long after the birth.

I understand from my Irish colleagues that it is unlikely that the need for gestational surrogates will be met by domestic surrogacy. Canada continues to provide Irish intended parents with a safe, ethical and legal jurisdiction in which to engage in gestational surrogacy. Working collaboratively, Canadian and Irish lawyers are and ought to be engaged to ensure that the legalities of both jurisdictions are met. I hope that the checks and balances to ensure free and informed consent of the gestational surrogates, the federal and provincial recognition and regulation of surrogacy in Canada, the positive experiences of the gestational surrogates and the socioeconomic realities of Canadian women satisfies the committee that surrogacy in Canada is neither coercive nor exploitative of gestational surrogates, but is in fact empowering and rewarding. I believe that this committee, Irish intended parents, lawmakers and courts can find comfort and confidence in Canadian surrogacy to provide a safe and ethical surrogate system for Irish intended parents engaging in surrogacy abroad.