Dr. Lydia Bracken:

We made reference to the pre-conception approach, which I believe was also mentioned at the previous committee hearing. That type of approach is used in a number of jurisdictions around the world. New Hampshire was mentioned as a model of very good practice at the previous hearing. My academic research has looked at the South African model. Both models are very appropriate. They are both based on pre-conception court orders, where one goes to court before the child has been conceived. Within that court process one gains authorisation to engage in the surrogacy, and parentage is allocated at the outset. This provides certainty at the beginning as to who the parents are once the child is born. It means that once the baby is born, the focus can be on caring for the newborn and going to court again to fix legal parentage issues is not necessary. Those two jurisdictions are very good models of surrogacy, and perhaps provide appropriate blueprints which Ireland might look to when regulating this area.