The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports that two Chief Justices in Australia have called for the Australian government to conduct a national inquiry into surrogacy.
Family Court Chief Justice Diana Byrant called the current lack of legislation is “reckless” and said that the courts are in a difficult position because the surrogacy laws aren’t being strictly enforced and are knowingly being breached by commissioning parents, according to ABC.
Chief Justice Byrant also said her greatest concern was for children born of surrogacy when the commissioning parents could not prove who the mother was and that this was a violation of the children’s rights.
Byrant pointed to situations of surrogacy in Thailand when eggs used were from anonymous sources in the Ukraine as an example of Australians being “reckless” for “creating a number of children in 20 years time, who will want to known their birth mothers and there is no chance they will know anything about them.”
The Thailand child custody lawyers at Chaninat and Leeds have decades of courtroom and counseling experience in family law matters.
Federal Circuit Court Chief Justice John Pascoe called for an inquiry over the need to ensure that the human rights of all parties involved in surrogacy, including the commissioning parents, were being protected.
“Firstly, I don’t think we can outlaw conduct in Australia but then say it’s fine as long as it doesn’t take place here,” Chief Justice Pascoe said, according to ABC. “Particularly when we know it’s taking place in countries where it exposes women and children to potential serious human rights abuses.”
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, states and territories, not the Federal Government, regulate overseas surrogacy arrangements, and foreign commercial surrogacy is illegal in three Australian jurisdictions.
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Related Documents:
Thailand Medical Council Regulations on Assisted Reproduction Technologies
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