Surrogacy & Fertility Bulletin – March 2020

Looking for updates for all things surrogacy and fertility, in Australia and overseas? Consider this your one-stop-shop with all your news.

Melbourne couple Tim and Celeste opened up about the challenges and pressures of infertility on their lives and their relationship in The Age article: Trying to survive: When infertility enters a relationship. Tim and Celeste have now commenced a surrogacy journey in Victoria.

Germany is one of the few European countries where surrogate motherhood and egg donation are completely banned. But there is a growing movement for overturning, or at least softening, a law many consider outdated and Germany is considering the ban on egg donation.

The Northern Territory still doesn’t have any surrogacy laws, and another family is campaigning for the government to introduce surrogacy laws so that they can grow their family. Tara and Luke Kaspar have spent four years and nearly $80,000 trying to have a baby – if they lived in any other jurisdiction in Australia, surrogacy would be their next step.

Brett and Casey are among about 100 people participating in a study into relationships between donors and children, led by family and health law expert Fiona Kelly at La Trobe University. Brett has fifteen sperm donor-conceived offspring, and one of them is Casey. The two of them met when Casey was only 7 years old.

Amy Molloy married her first husband in 2007 when he had weeks to live. Eoghan, her fiance, was diagnosed with malignant melanoma at the age of 34. After his death she considered whether she could use his sperm to have a baby. 

The United Kingdom is reviewing its surrogacy laws, with the Law Commission completing public consultations and releasing a consultation paper for further discussion and making tentative recommendations. Interestingly, much of the discussion and the issues are very similar to those that we’ve seen in Australia, including during the reviews in Victoria and South Australia.

More and more Chinese couples, including same sex male couples, are pursuing surrogacy in America. Li and Xu fell in love in a country where gay marriage and surrogacy are illegal – this article tells their story.

The High Court in Israel struck down a law which blocked access to surrogacy to same sex male couples and single men. A summary of the decision publiciSed by the High Court of Justice said current surrogacy laws “disproportionately violate the right to equality and the right to parenthood of these groups and are illegal.”

Writer Miranda Hill wrote this amazing piece as my guest blogger, about parenting with a chronic illness. Miranda is a heart transplant recipient, egg donation recipient and mother through surrogacy.

People accessing fertility treatments in Victoria celebrated announcements that they would no longer need to pass police and child welfare checks before being approved, under reforms introduced by the Andrews Government.

Meanwhile, regular discussions about traditional surrogacy and declarations that ‘she won’t give up the baby!’ prompted me to do some fact-checking and write this post, about whether it is in fact more likely that a traditional surrogate won’t relinquish the child.

Season 3 of the Podcast was launched! and started with another dose of Khale – Katrina Hale and I discussing the third trimester. Standby for more Khale episodes in the coming weeks.

You can find more information in the free Surrogacy Handbook, reading articles in the Blog, by listening to more episodes of the Podcast. You can also book in for a consult with me below.