Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 26 May 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy

Potential Double Standards in Protections for Surrogate Mothers in Domestic Arrangements: Discussion

Photo of Lynn RuaneLynn Ruane (Independent)
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I thank the witnesses for their presentations. They were brilliant.

I wish to focus on Professor Madden's points in her presentation about the idea of commercial surrogacy and being able to challenge its definition or the belief that commercial surrogacy is, by its very definition, for some reason unethical. From the very beginning of this committee, and having looked at this issue as a woman who has had different lives in respect of socio-economic background and class, living on the one-parent family payment, being a young mother and having no third level education, I have felt at each stage of my life very much able to consent and to make decisions as to what I want to do and do not want to do with my life. I have always been very interested in trying to tease out a little more this conversation and the kind of paternalistic feeling I get when these conversations about women's ability to engage in real, informed consent come up. Could we therefore talk a little about how we begin to challenge that narrative? I think it is an idea rather than a real thing that compensation means exploitation. It is not necessarily true. How do we begin to have those conversations? We have laws on exploitation, coercion and human trafficking to capture when those things happen, but that does not mean we cannot also regulate for surrogacy that is compensated or that it cannot be ethical. Can Professor Madden elaborate a little more on her thoughts on that?