Ms Sara Cohen:

The first question related to how Ireland should concern itself with surrogacy happening in jurisdictions where it does not really have any control over how it works. Perhaps there ought to be a list of requirements or issues Ireland should consider, such as whether surrogacy is legal in the jurisdiction where the child is to be born. That is very important. Obviously, the free and informed consent the Senator talked about is very important and can be provided in various ways, such as by affidavit or by a lawyer signing a certificate of independent legal advice. I like the idea of a requirement for independent legal advice being provided to the surrogate, which is always very important. If it were up to me, I also like the idea of a psychological screening. Similarly, we must ensure not only that surrogacy is legal in the jurisdiction where it is to happen but that the intended parents are the legal parents in the jurisdiction because it can be a mess if, internationally, that child is nearly the child of the surrogate. Finally, it is important to be sure about the citizenship of the child and to ensure he or she will be able to obtain Irish citizenship. It can be very problematic if he or she is not and it can cause major problems.

The Deputy asked about how Canada deals with children being born abroad through surrogacy. Again, the number of children involved is not very large, but Canada does a few things. In regard to citizenship, it used to require a genetic connection between an intended parent who is a Canadian citizen and the child being born.

We no longer require that. We require that within the jurisdiction where the child is born, that child is legally the child of a Canadian citizen and therefore obtains citizenship, which is wonderful. It makes very good sense, especially for non-heteronormative family building.

Regarding its oversight, documents need to be provided to Canadian ministries. One of them is to establish if there is a surrogacy agreement written and in place. There are exactly the kinds of questions this committee has been asking about things like free and informed consent, and independent legal advice. Canada concerns itself that the hospital bills have been paid for in the other country to ensure people are not taking advantage of the other country. We require some things that are a bit more obvious such as the Canadian birth certificates of the intended parents, etc. We want the birth certificate of the jurisdiction and ideally a court order after birth. It is not just a pre-birth order because we do not recognise pre-birth orders in Canada. We only recognise post-birth orders that the child is legally the child of the intended parents. That is how we handle that.