Results 821-840 of 2,078 for speaker:Mary Seery Kearney

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: There could be requirements or criteria that we could put in around that as part of the recognition of parentage process in Ireland for a child who is born by a surrogacy abroad, such as an age limit and a cap on the number of surrogacies that an individual can engage in, and we could put a threshold similar to what is already in the Bill on domestic surrogacy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: We have a reality of Canada being considered a compensated surrogacy regime, and yet the payments to the surrogate mother in Canada are vastly in excess of those that are paid in normal times to surrogate mothers in Ukraine, for instance. There is that disparity in economic well-being of the country and how far a euro will go in either country. There should be some sort of a recognition in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: -----and could be prescribed for. I just want to come back to the funding. Dr. Wingfield raised legitimate points of who gets funding that are very important for consideration. Certainly, in the surrogacy sphere, there are people pretty much mortgaging their futures, pensions and their possibility of buying houses. There is a misunderstanding that people who engage in surrogacy are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I would reiterate a point that the Chair made. It is important to note that people are engaging in egg collection now. A number of years from now, or once the AHR legislation comes through, where do they stand with regard to engaging with in international surrogacy? This is an important point and it underlines to the committee the need.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: To go back to Dr. Wingfield’s experience of shipping abroad and seeing paperwork coming back from different clinics, this is not just a case of working with countries, but working with clinics. The experience of the advocacy groups, and one in particular, is that a clinic can be fine for a while but there can be a change in personnel and then suddenly the clinic is not fine and does...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I thank our guests for their opening statements and contributions and I thank Ms Gamble for the briefing document, which I appreciated. There are more than 67 million people residing in the UK. Much of the argument for the need for international surrogacy in Ireland comes down to population and the fact there would not be the same availability of people willing to be surrogate mothers here....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Okay. I thank Ms Gamble. Does Dr. Horsey have anything to add?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Okay. That is great. That brings us to the countries people would go to. We are hoping to have an assisted human reproduction authority here. My hope is that would be a place of knowledge and experience about what has happened or about surrogacy and even within Ireland about recommended clinics, licensed clinics abroad, and maybe recommended countries and clinics within that country so we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: My third question concerns the definition of commercial surrogacy, and the fact that there is not a recognised definition of it. We have everything from compensated surrogacy, as in the Canadian model, all the way through to absolute exploitation and criminal behaviour. I think the term "commercial surrogacy" can be weaponised in the hands of those who do not want surrogacy. They will draw...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: We hear the allegation that domestically we are not allowing exploitation but internationally we are. This is to presuppose women in Ireland can have informed consent and make the decision to enter into a surrogacy agreement but somehow women abroad cannot do so. I want to label this for what it is. It is making an assumption that somehow if people do not live in Ireland they do not have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: How is maternity leave and maternity benefit dealt with?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I was asking about both maternity leave and maternity benefit.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I will make two absolute points. I thank Ms Gamble for her clarification that in the Indian example, the decision came from the Indian Government and was done in conjunction with a supreme court decision in India that it would not be a destination. That does not mean ethical surrogacies were not entered into in India and given that many children in Ireland were born via surrogacy in India,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Business of Joint Committee (21 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I second the nomination.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Assisted Human Reproduction Coalition (21 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Ms Cohalan is entitled to respond to the Senator's inflammatory language.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Assisted Human Reproduction Coalition (21 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Critical thinking does not excuse inflammatory and sensationalist language.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Assisted Human Reproduction Coalition (21 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Well said.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Assisted Human Reproduction Coalition (21 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Assisted Human Reproduction Coalition (21 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: This issue is very personal for many people here.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Assisted Human Reproduction Coalition (21 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Absolutely, it did.