Page 12 - FSANZ SPRING -2021

NZ review of ‘outdated’ surrogacy laws
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The Law Commission in New Zealand, an independent Crown body, is conducting an extensive review of how surrogacy is regulated in that country.
An issues paper, released by the Commission, has identified problems with the current law and presents proposals for reform. Alongside the paper, the Commission has published a consultation website that summarises the key proposals while seeking feedback from the public.
The issues paper covers a broad range of topics related to surrogacy including:
• legal parenthood in surrogacy;
• the approval process for surrogacy arrangements;
• what financial support surrogates should be entitled to;
• whether tikanga Maori, which means customary practices, is provided for under current law;
• how to ensure children born through surrogacy receive information about their origins;
• how New Zealand law should provide for surrogacy arrangements that occur overseas; and
• how to address various barriers to pursuing a surrogacy arrangement in New Zealand.
The Commission’s Principal Legal and Policy Adviser, Nichola Lambie, said laws around surrogacy were outdated and needed to be improved to safeguard the best interests of children while meeting the needs and expectations of New Zealanders.
Reform of surrogacy law was the subject of a previous Law Commission report in 2005, along with three Members’ Bills over the past decade, and a petition to Parliament in 2019 that gained over 30,000 signatures. It is also a topic of academic research and multiple reform initiatives in other jurisdictions.
The Commission has drawn on all these sources to present a comprehensive set of options that address current problems and provide for regulation of surrogacy into the future.
Nichola Lambie said a key problem with the current law was that intended parents must adopt the child in order to be recognised as the child’s legal parents. The surrogate and her partner (if she has one) are the legal parents at birth.
She said the rules were not designed with surrogacy in mind and “we think it is time the law caught up with the reality of surrogacy arrangements.”
The Commission is expected to make its final report with recommendations to the New Zealand Government next year.
Simon McDowell from Fertility Associates in Wellington, who is the NZ representative to the FSANZ Board, said: “I wholeheartedly welcome the anticipated reforms.
“The law is out of date and has not kept pace with evolving societal needs. This is an opportunity to modernise the NZ surrogacy legal process to better reflect the expectations of whanau (or family) in New Zealand.”
Updated preconception health fact sheets
The FSANZ’s Preconception Health Special Interest Group and Your Fertility have collaboratively produced new and updated fact sheets for health professionals.
Your Fertility is a national public education program of the Fertility Coalition, which is funded by the Australian Government and Victorian Government Departments of Health.
The evidence-based fact sheets were first developed in 2013 by members of the Preconception Health Special Interest Group with the help of a small grant from the Fertility Society.
Designed for health professionals to discuss with their patients, the fact sheets were updated in 2017 and again recently, and they are available on the FSANZ and Your Fertility websites.
The fact sheets cover the following topics:
• age, fertility and assisted reproductive technology;
• effects of caffeine, alcohol and smoking on fertility;
• effects of mental illness and its treatment on fertility and pregnancy health;
• genetics and genomes;
• micronutrient (folic acid, iodine and vitamin D)
supplements pre-conception and during pregnancy;
• micronutrient (zinc and selenium) supplements and sub-fertility;
• sexually transmitted infections;
• the effects of environmental chemicals on fertility and
fecundity;
• the role of exercise in improving fertility, quality of life and emotional well-being;
• the role of complementary therapies and medicines to improve fertility and emotional well-being; and
• reproductive carrier screening.
For more information, go to www.yourfertility.org.au or www.fertilitysociety.com.au