Surrogacy is an increasing area in which family lawyers are providing advice across Australia.
Surrogacy is the legal process involved in having a parent “mother” to carry a child and proceed to birth and then provide the child back to the biological parents.
Countries that allow this to occur and that will provide a transfer of parentage to the biological parents post birth include Australia.
There are some certain rules in relation to the practice of surrogacy. The major issues are :
- The surrogacy cannot be a commercial based transaction and that is that fees cannot be received for brokering the surrogacy relationship however charges can be paid for medical and other costs for the surrogate mother.
- There is no advertising allowed for surrogacy nor is advertising to be a surrogate permitted within Australia.
- A surrogate can only receive the expenses payment that has been incurred in being pregnant for the intended biological parents.
- Surrogacy screening and support is usually not provided in these types of arrangements and need to be worked out between the individual parties.
The engaging of a lawyer is essential in Australia once you have found a potential surrogate to ensure that parentage and other post birth requirements in relation to the birth certificate are complied with.
It is important prior to embarking on this journey to obtain legal advice first before proceeding.
There are also some excellent organisations that provide support in this area including Growing Families – info@growingfamilies.org