Sarah’s home

After 15 flights, thousands of air miles and many hours in airports, Sarah’s home from her epic Churchill Fellowship, researching best practice surrogacy around the world.

Now that I’m home, I am deep in drafting my final Churchill Report which will be published by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and it’ll be available to read. I want to acknowledge the support of the Trust that helped turn my dream into a reality.

I feel really lucky to have had the opportunity of a Fellowship, and for the experiences I’ve had along the way. Everyone I met was generous, kind and supportive, well beyond what I expected. I feel privileged to work with such amazing, clever and inspiring colleagues and friends from around the world. Some highlights of my trip included:

• Attending the International Surrogacy Forum in Cape Town, and having the opportunity to hear from and meet so many interesting colleagues. Cape Town was beautiful and my favourite part was visiting the pretty streets of Bo Kaap and spending the day on the Franschhoek Wine Tram Tour.

.

• Speaking at the International Surrogacy Forum about the importance of having nuanced conversations about compensating surrogates, and recognising the work of surrogacy, pregnancy and birth and compensating surrogates accordingly.
  .
• Experiencing Irish hospitality and meeting inspiring women in Kilkenny and Dublin, and having a private tour of Dublin and Dun Laoghaire with lawyer Fiona Duffy. I particularly enjoyed the craic with former politician and mum through surrogacy Mary Seery Kearney, and Ciara Merrigan from Irish Families through Surrogacy, and visiting the Book of Kells at Trinity College.
  .
• Hanging with cool and clever people in England, including a day visit to Canterbury to meet with Dr Kirsty Horsey, and drinks on the Thames with surrogacy lawyers. My kids and partner joined me in London and we had an amazing time seeing the Lion King in the West End, and eating out at Ottolenghi.
  .
• We had a family holiday in Berlin and Amsterdam and loved the tour of the Reichstag and visiting Keukenhof Tulip Farm. My family then headed back to Melbourne and I flew on to Toronto.
  .
• Flying to Canada after saying goodbye to my family was really challenging, and solo travel can be very lonely. It’s not all fun when the only person you speak to is the barista making your coffee and your family is on a different time zone! I was grateful for the support of my family and counsellor Sarah-Jayne Duryea. I also had lovely meetings with surrogate Sara Fehrman, who herself has carried for Australian intended parents, and lawyers Sara Cohen and Cindy Wasser. And I made a day trip to Niagara Falls, which was amazing!
  .
• Departing Canada, I went on to New York city, which could keep anyone busy as the city that never sleeps. I was able to meet with Angela and Madison at Alcea Surrogacy, a surrogacy matching service that is now licensed under New York’s surrogacy licensing framework. It was an absolute privilege to spend a day with lawyer Bill Singer, who took me on a tour of the Village and talked with me about law reform and LGBTQIA+ rights in America.
  .
• I was able to visit the Museum of Modern Art, spend time studying in the Rose Reading Room at the New York library, walking through Central Park, eating Crumbl cookies and demanding they come to Australia, seeing ‘& Juliet’ on Broadway, and my first Yankees game. In the current political climate, I was so lucky to stand alongside New York lawyers at a rally as they affirmed their commitment to the rule of law.
  .
• I then made the trip to Puerto Rico to attend my first conference of the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproductive Attorneys in San Juan. The Academy boasts 400 lawyers from across America and the world, dedicated to ethics and best practice legal services for surrogacy, donor and adoption arrangements. Australian professionals could learn much from the Academy, and in part it has inspired the inaugural Fertility Law and Ethics conference to be held in Melbourne in October.

Now that I am home, my mind is buzzing with ideas and inspiration for how we can overhaul surrogacy in Australia and implement a best practice model for surrogacy in our own country. I am excited for the current ALRC review of Australian surrogacy laws and hopeful for what we can achieve.

There are only 130-150 surrogacy births in Australia each year, and over 300 babies born via international surrogacy for Australian intended parents. Many children born overseas are born in countries where surrogacy is unregulated, and there are risks for the babies and surrogates, and frequent allegations of human trafficking and exploitation. My Churchill Fellowship sought to find ways to make surrogacy more accessible within Australia, to reduce the need for intended parents to travel overseas for surrogacy.

Read more about my vision for Australian surrogacy reform.

So now that Sarah’s home you are welcome to get in touch and can take a look at the legal services I provide. You can also ask any questions of my assistant, Flossie, the Fertility Law Search Assistant on the bottom right of the screen.