Sydney surrogacy
On Monday and Tuesday this week I attended the Fertility Society of Australia conference in Sydney, to learn about IVF and ART issues, and to talk about surrogacy.
The Fertility Society of Australia is the peak body for the country’s fertility doctors, nurses and counsellors. It is unique in the world for getting all three groups together at the one conference, sharing ideas. I am a member of the society.
On Tuesday I presented about ethical and moral dilemmas to do with surrogacy. The paper I prepared for the conference is here. My presentation was after hearing Professor Jenni Millbank’s call for there to be commercial surrogacy in Australia, a call which I endorsed. While there are many concerns about commercial surrogacy, it seems crazy that there are so many limitations in Australia about surrogacy which have necessarily resulted in Australians going to developing countries for surrogacy. One might wonder that if surrogacy were easier to do at home, the potential for things going awry overseas (let along any potential exploitation) would greatly abate.
Our presentations went well. The overflowing room was full of questioning audience members keen to discuss issues further. A great conference!
