A chara, – Both Dr Don O'Leary (March 24th) and Prof Deirdre Madden (March 25th) seem to think that because there are those in this country who have deliberately entered into the unregulated territory that is surrogacy, those people are somehow entitled to having their decisions retrospectively ratified by the State. That is not the case.
Their choices, made with the full knowledge that they were embroiling themselves in a decidedly “iffy” legal situation, should in no way be allowed to put pressure on the rest of society to disentangle them after the fact. The practice of surrogacy must stand or fall on its own merits; and the plain facts are that it exploits women for the sake of producing babies which will be treated as commodities. This is why there is a growing international movement for a total ban on it.
Banning the practice in Ireland may not make the cross-border surrogacy industry disappear, but it would prevent any societal complicity in it on our part and hopefully discourage further Irish couples from entering into such arrangements; both because they know that it is outlawed in this State and because they understand that any child they procure in such a fashion will not be recognised by the State as theirs. – Is mise,
Rev PATRICK G BURKE,
Castlecomer,
Co Kilkenny.