Surrogacy In Australia Essay

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Surrogacy is an ongoing issue within Australia, as people are seeking alternative methods at an international scale to find loopholes in the Australian Legal System. Commercial surrogacy is illegal in Australia, yet legal in other international countries, legal ramifications arise when Australians travel beyond the borders to seek surrogacy arrangements. This reveals the on going dispute on why in a recent article the Chief Justice of the Family court referred to surrogacy arrangements in Australia as a “ticking time bomb.”

“Surrogacy is a form of of assisted reproductive technology, where a woman offers to carry a baby through pregnancy on behalf of another person or couple and then return the baby to the intended parents, once it’s born”, …show more content…

Commercial surrogacy has been legal in india since 2002, due to the low cost of having an international surrogacy arrangement. According to the ART BILL, 2008, in the event of the death of the intended parents, the surrogacy arrangement should provide financial support for the child, as well as life insurance for the surrogate mother if something goes wrong. The birth certificate should only contain the names of intended parents and at least one of the intended parents should be a donor to reduce the risk of abandonment of the child. However, Indian surrogates were exploited, which lead to the banning of commercial surrogacy in India in …show more content…

As altruistic surrogacy is the only form of surrogacy currently legal in Australia, it causes Australian’s to travel internationally to receive surrogate arrangements. Considering the surrogate does not receive financial compensation for carrying someone else’s child. Most likely, the baby is carried by a friend, sister or mother out of generosity. But the altruism law has reduced the number of Australian women wanting to act as surrogates, leading to the increasing number of couples heading overseas. If commercial surrogacy was legalised, more women would be volunteering to act as surrogates as it is a large sacrifice, without payment. This change of law could be achieved by creating a reasonable price range that will avoid

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