Lesbian couple allowed to be foster parents, but banned from adopting

Can someone be paid to donate eggs in Australia? The short answer is no. Human eggs cannot lawfully be treated as something to buy or sell. Australia permits altruistic egg donation, not commercial egg donation. But that is not the end of the story. A donor may be reimbursed for reasonable expenses associated with the… Read More »Paid egg donation in Australia: is it legal?

Does a prison sentence also mean losing the opportunity to become a parent after release? That question sits at the heart of Smith v Chief Executive, Queensland Corrective Services, a powerful High Court decision about egg freezing, fertility preservation and the limits of punishment. The High Court unanimously found that egg freezing did not fall… Read More »Egg Freezing in Prison: The High Court’s Decision in Smith

A lesbian couple using the same sperm donor should not become two families simply because both women want to carry a child. That is the straightforward principle behind Queensland Health’s reversal of its guidance on donor limits. The revised guidance recognises those women as one family for the purposes of Queensland’s donor limit. It removes… Read More »Donor limits Queensland: lesbian couples now one family