Sir, – Commercial surrogacy is illegal in all EU countries because it commodifies children and exploits women.
A new Bill (“Overseas commercial surrogacy to be permitted under new law”, News, November 14th) will ban commercial surrogacy in Ireland while, at the same time, it will give legal recognition when happening overseas.
How can we justify and facilitate an exploitative practice that is illegal here only because it takes places abroad, where the State has no control over standards and regulations? Can anyone see the hypocrisy? This is a typical Irish solution to an Irish problem. – Yours, etc,
LIAM Ó hALMHAIN,
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Family Solidarity,
Dublin 2.
Sir, – No mention was made in your article referring to commercial surrogacy about provisions in law to protect the gestational mothers of Irish children. Given that the long-term impacts of childbirth on a woman’s physical and mental health are sometimes considerable, will the State offer protection to surrogates from overseas in the case of physical and mental healthcare needs relating to paid-for pregnancies that involve costs that exceed the initial financial payment, or that manifest months or even years after pregnancy?
For example, would a surrogate mother, having borne an Irish child as a young woman, who goes on to suffer incontinence in later life that stems from her experience of childbirth be entitled to support and compensation from the Irish authorities and/or the commissioning parents or their heirs?
Ireland, now a wealthy country, has a long and sordid history of the commodification of women’s fertility. Today it is legislating to facilitate the commodification of the fertility of women in poorer countries, who may – in some cases – be renting their wombs under financial or other forms of duress. Hopefully the authorities will decide that we have a duty of care to the gestational, as well as the biological, parents of children born under surrogacy arrangements, and hopefully we will soon learn of the legislation that will underpin a comprehensive bill of rights for these women. – Yours, etc,
DEIRDRE NUTTALL,
Dublin 8.