Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief and refrain from making many contributions until we get to Committee Stage.

The message is not at all that surrogacy is great, but that surrogacy is unfortunately necessary for some people. It is about the necessity of surrogacy so some people can enjoy a family life in they way they intended to. There is also sometimes a misunderstanding of what altruism means. Sometimes when people say something is altruistic there is a sense that somehow it is charitable or free in nature, which is not true. Altruism has many different meanings across many different philosophical theories. That does not mean somebody should not be reimbursed or cared for. If we look at the surrogate as somebody who is being altruistic, the altruism should also be returned. We are looking at the returning of altruism because we are looking at the moral good then and the well-being of the other person, namely, the surrogate. This means that person may need welfare supports. I know this from having two very complicated births, in the end. I am still attending hospital. I still need care.

As for this idea that the reimbursement tends towards commercialisation and all of these things, for us not to acknowledge what is involved in the giving of oneself to give birth for another person is to do the opposite of returning altruism to the individual whom we are saying has been so altruistic to us. This is about making sure the surrogate has what she needs should any complications arise or any care be needed in the future. We should look at altruism in its fullest sense by looking at what it actually means in terms of how it flows between all the people who are involved in a scenario related to surrogacy.

I will have some amendments. It was a pleasure to be a member of the committee on surrogacy. It was an issue I did not know much about when it came to the legalities. I learned a huge amount and I thank Senator Seery Kearney for the level of understanding of the issue that she has, not just from her experience but also as someone who understands the law, as a legislator and somebody who can navigate legislation beyond her experience of being a mother through surrogacy. She is able to be here as a mother through surrogacy while also having a very deep understanding of the legislative process, people’s rights within that and where they need to go.People in the Chamber lean on that expertise beyond the Senator's individual experience. Nonetheless, I thank her for being so generous with her lived experience because it is helpful in the wider sense.

I do not have any comment on the IVF piece of the Bill. I feel I am a bit late to the party because there is an issue relating to IVF that I had not thought about previously. I hope that I can look at the Bill during the coming Stages and that there will be a conversation. I have always done a lot of work in the prison system. I recently did an 18-month piece of work with a group of men on the theory of the oppressed. A huge amount of work has been created. Some of the men are nearing the end of a prison sentence. Some of them have partners who have waited a long time for them to come home. We do not have a prison system that allows human contact. We do not have an understanding of how family planning works within the prison system. Some people in prisons want to start families. I sometimes think that is an issue that people do not want to talk about because they may have judgments or biases. There are men in the prison system who may get out in three or four years. While that may not be a problem for them, their partners, who may have already waited for a long time, may be concerned about their fertility because they may be entering a certain age bracket, may have their own issues or may need to begin IVF for whatever reason. We should start looking at some of those populations. The HSE is responsible for healthcare in general but the Irish Prison Service is responsible for the health of people in prison. We need to be able to co-ordinate. The Irish Prison Service is a non-statutory body. How do we provide adequate access to family planning for people who are in the prison system or in other congregated settings? Such people may not have access to family planning or advice about starting a family. It is a matter I wish I had thought about sooner. It was the men themselves who included that as a recommendation in a document we will release next year. The men themselves have asked about access to family planning and exploring IVF. It has happened in one or two cases but is not a general service that prisoners can access in a real way. I may come back to this point on Committee Stage.