SA LGBTI couples can now pursue surrogacy there
Wednesday March 22, 2017

SA LGBTI couples can now pursue surrogacy there

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Changes to South Australian assisted reproductive treatment and surrogacy laws that partly remove discrimination started yesterday.

The laws will allow for the first time:

  • lesbian couples without medical infertility (which has traditionally been the failure to fall pregnant after 1 year of heterosexual intercourse- you see the problem) to have IVF or other ART
  • single women to have ART and IVF, even if they do not have medical infertility
  • LGBTI couples to have surrogacy

What the laws won’t do, due to amendments in the Upper House brought about by Families First, is to allow single men and women to undergo surrogacy. Doctors will not be able to provide IVF and ART to those patients if they need to undertake surrogacy.

Men and women who are single and cannot have a child except through surrogacy, for example breast cancer survivors, cannot still undertake surrogacy in South Australia and might have to go interstate or overseas.

As well as helping South Australian clients proceed with surrogacy, I have helped clients from South Australia plan to be parents elsewhere when surrogacy was not available to them in South Australia.

The silly change- registered objectors

Some bright spark in Parliament came up with an amendment of being a registered objector. If a person holding an ART registration  objects to treatment of a patient due to their relationship status or sexuality, according to this change- that’s OK- BUT the registered person must go on a public register and say so (the name and shame file) and refer the patient to someone else.

At first blush this would appear to an IVF doctor- but it isn’t! The registered person, due to the fine print- regulation 6 of the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Regulations must be an IVF clinic. Now which of the four South Australian IVF clinics is going to do that and give their work to their competitors:

  • Repromed?
  • Fertility SA?
  • City Fertility Clinic?
  • Flinders?

I am sure none of them- which makes the whole exercise rather pointless. It was probably assumed by the politician in question that the amendment would cover  doctors, not clinics. Quite simply, it doesn’t.

Request an Appointment
Fill in the form below to find out if you have a claim.
Request an Appointment - Stephen Page
Things to Read, Watch & Listen
International Surrogacy Statistics: Australia Hits Record

International Surrogacy Births Hit a New Record

For every child born through surrogacy in Australia, around five children born overseas through surrogacy now apply for Australian citizenship by descent. That is the picture emerging from the latest figures discussed here. It is a striking comparison, even allowing for the fact that the domestic and international figures measure different things. In the year… Read More »International Surrogacy Births Hit a New Record

Surrogacy Law Reform Australia: What's Next After ALRC?

Surrogacy law reform: what’s next after the ALRC inquiry

The Australian Law Reform Commission’s surrogacy inquiry could be an important moment for Australian families. Its report has been delivered to the Commonwealth Attorney-General and is due to be tabled in federal parliament. The question is not simply what the report recommends. It is whether Australia’s nine governments will work together to turn those recommendations… Read More »Surrogacy law reform: what’s next after the ALRC inquiry

MRKH syndrome: how surrogacy can help you become a parent

MRKH syndrome: how surrogacy can help you become a parent

MRKH syndrome means being born without a uterus. It does not mean that parenthood is impossible. For women with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome, often shortened to MRKH, the journey to understanding their body can begin at a young age. Many discover in their early teenage years, commonly around 14 or 15, that they will not be able… Read More »MRKH syndrome: how surrogacy can help you become a parent

Family Law Section Law Council of Australia Award
Member of Queensland law society
Family law Practitioners Association
International Academy of Family Lawyers - IAFL
Mediator Standards Board