Ms Jennifer Armstrong:

Deputy Higgins talked about requirements and surrogates have similar requirements. I do not know what was on the entire list but all the things you listed were a requirement to be a surrogate in Canada. I think, very specifically, that the requirement of having a baby ahead of time is a very important one, mainly because you need to know what you are signing up for. You do not know what pregnancy is like. The other part of that is that you need to know that you can become pregnant and maintain a pregnancy.

If someone is going to invest sometimes up to $100,000 in Canada - I cannot do the conversion for euro - that is a lot of money to not know whether the person you are asking to carry for you can actually carry a baby. I would want to know that person has been able to carry a baby. It is also important from the surrogate perspective. The surrogate needs to know what she is doing and signing up for because pregnancy is no joke. If you have never been through a pregnancy, you cannot make an informed decision about what you are signing up for with surrogacy.