Social Affairs

Assisted reproduction bill may only deal with retrospective international surrogacy cases

The Irish government has struggled to come up with a framework that ethically addresses that parentage issue without endorsing and facilitating international commercial surrogacy

Jennifer Whitmore of the Social Democrats says paying for surrogacy agencies is at the intending parents’ discretion. Picture: RollingNews

The government is considering dealing only with retrospective cases of international surrogacy in the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill and delaying the provision of a more thorough system for future regulation of the practice in a separate law.

It comes as the 12-week Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy delivered its report last week, unambiguously calling for international surrogacy to be facilitated and regulated for Irish couples.

In the new Assisted Human Reproduction Bill (AHR), the Irish ...