Ms Maud de Boer-Buquicchio:

The Verona principles have been discussed at length between a number of international legal experts on the matter. I was not formally part of this group although I attended some of its sessions. Principle 14 accurately sums up the permissible approaches to commercial surrogacy, in particular the question of when it is possible to separate, as I said before, the payment for gestational services from payment for transfer, in which case there is no payment for transfer and hence, no sale of the child.

I think the Senator mentioned that the surrogate mother is exclusively responsible for the decision to transfer the child. What matters in this context is what happens before that, namely, the pre-birth assessment of the suitability of the parents, and what happens after the birth, such as best interests and the needs determination, because circumstances may change. It is always essential that such a best-interest determination to take place post-birth.

In addition to that, it would be imperative to allow the birth mother, or the surrogate, to have the legal parentage at birth. There should nevertheless be a reflection period during which she can change her mind as to whether she wishes to transfer the parentage to which she has previously agreed or to share it with the intending parents.