Dr. Lydia Bracken:

Absolutely. I thank the Senator for her question. What I was referring to in my opening statement is that there is a handful of pathways that are very clearly omitted form the legislation. In particular, non-clinical donor-assisted human reproduction procedures currently fall outside the framework for parentage that is created by the 2015 Act. Similarly, the legislation does not cover donor-assisted human reproduction procedures that take place in another country. If one travels to another country to engage in donor-assisted human reproduction, one would not be subject to the same parentage provisions once one returns to the country. Within the legislation there is a provision which would allow for parentage to be allocated to an intended parent who is not currently recognised as a parent in a situation where the child was conceived prior to commencement of the legislation, that is, prior to 4 May 2020. In that situation, if a known donor had been used then, again, the procedure is not available to that family. In that way, those pathways are omitted from the legislation despite the fact that those pathways are the reality of life for many families within the country. It raises children’s rights issues in terms of the child’s right to family life and, in particular, having a legal relationship with the other non-legal parent who the law does not currently recognise in any capacity as having legal rights and responsibilities towards the child. That is an area where, if we are introducing new legislation on assisted human reproduction, we should also be fixing our existing legislation to ensure the same children’s rights standards will apply throughout.