Are you thinking about signing up to the Surrogacy Australia Support Service (SASS)? The service is operating outside the law and is not able to deliver on its promises.

There is no requirement to join SASS to enter a surrogacy arrangement in Australia. The chances of finding a surrogate via SASS is negligible. About 80% of my clients find a surrogate in their existing relationships. The other 20% find a surrogate in ‘new relationships’ formed after meeting on social media, particularly surrogacy-specific Facebook groups.

The Surrogacy Australia Support Service itself only claims to have matched 1-2 of arrangements per year. Many intended parents pay over $1,300 to join the Surrogacy Australia Support Service with the hope of finding a surrogate, but are unsuccessful. I have recorded details of over 600 Australian surrogacy arrangements in the last 4 years and less than 0.5% of the arrangements met via the Surrogacy Australia Support Service.

I advise hundreds of intended parents and surrogates each year and many people have raised concerns about the Surrogacy Australia Support Service success rates and value for money, and the ability to receive a refund if the service does not meet expectations. Intended parents have shared that the resources and ‘support’ they received amounted to minimal emails and no options to meet a surrogate. Surrogates are enticed to join because it’s free for them to join, and so they can market SASS to the community.

Surrogacy Australia’s website does not disclose the number of intended parents and surrogates who have joined or are current members, prior to asking for payment of the $1,300 joining fee. Intended parents have told me that they paid to join before discovering there were no surrogates available.

The Surrogacy Australia Support Service has claimed credit for part of the 20-30% of new relationships. They claim that you can improve your chances of finding a surrogate if you join SASS. This is false and misleading advertising. If there are only 1-2 matches facilitated by SASS each year, they cannot claim credit for 20-30% of matches. There is no evidence of success and I believe SASS exploits vulnerable intended parents.

The Surrogacy Australia Support Service is not a government initiative and is not endorsed or supported by the Australian government. It is not regulated. No one at the Surrogacy Australia Support Service has legal or psychology qualifications despite giving quasi-legal advice and psychosocial support, which risks the welfare of the parties and children born via surrogacy. SASS cannot guarantee that a surrogacy arrangement will go smoothly, that the parties are a good match, that their emotional wellbeing is protected, or that they will be successful in obtaining a parentage order.

The service takes no responsibility if a parentage order is denied, or if a relationship breaks down. Surrogacy Australia’s webinar publishes photos of parties that likely breaches non-publication laws. Intended parents and surrogates have reported that Surrogacy Australia has shared their surrogacy and birth photos without consent, presenting the arrangement as if it were a ‘SASS match’ despite the parties not matching via SASS.

Surrogacy Australia is connected with Growing Families, which is a for-profit business that promotes overseas commercial surrogacy service providers. This can give rise to a conflict of interest, which may not be in your interests.

I do not recommend joining the Surrogacy Australia support Service. I believe, having provided advice to hundreds of intended parents and surrogates, that I am qualified to make this assessment.

Why am I so critical of the Surrogacy Australia Support Service? There’s no financial gain for me in raising concerns and I don’t compete with SASS for clients. I am a lawyer of 20 years experience, 10 of which have been in surrogacy. I observe that many intended parents feel desperate to find a surrogate and are lured to join Surrogacy Australia on the promise of a surrogate that likely does not exist. Many people feel afraid of speaking up – so if I don’t, who will?

Intended parents have told me that they do not feel safe to share negative feedback about SASS, for fear that it will impact their ability to find a surrogate in the community. One intended father shared “it makes my blood boil that they exploit people, but I can’t say anything because I don’t want the community to view me as anti-SASS, and for surrogates to avoid me.”

Regardless of where you go for your surrogacy arrangement, you should consider what best practice surrogacy looks like. And consider the conflicting interests in the surrogacy industry.

Some factors you should consider, before signing up:

• The Surrogacy Australia Support Service may be operating outside the law. Surrogacy laws in Australia vary. In South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria and Northern Territory, it is illegal to introduce, match or facilitate a surrogacy arrangement. Victoria and Queensland prohibit advertising. The Surrogacy Australia Support Service is not legally allowed to advertise for intended parents and surrogates or to facilitate a surrogacy arrangement. It may be illegal for intended parents to find a surrogate via SASS.
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• How many successful surrogate/intended parent matches have they made this past year? The Surrogacy Australia Support Service claims credit for only 8 matches over 5 years, and has never reported more than 2 matches in an entire year. They do not report on the number of intended parents who have joined and not been matched, and by my estimate it is likely to be in the hundreds.
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• The Surrogacy Australia Support Service paid member portal used to share articles that are freely available on my Blog, using my intellectual property without consent. Why are intended parents paying for resources behind a paywall that are available elsewhere for free?
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• Staff at Surrogacy Australia do not have any qualifications in providing psycho-social education or support, or screening people for surrogacy. By contrast, lawyers, counsellors and clinicians are all regulated and have developed skills working in the respective professions. It is unconscionable for SASS to purport to be screening or supporting people with no qualifications to do either.
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• Australian clinics provide inhouse surrogacy counselling, as part of their package or because it is a legal requirement. If you are paying the Surrogacy Australia Support Service for counselling, are you paying for a service that you will need to pay for twice? Do they tell you that you may need to pay for it twice?
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• How does the fee structure work, and are there different points where we can change our minds and receive a refund of parts of the fees? What do our fees pay for, exactly? Clients have told me that in exchange for signing up to SASS, they received cut/paste emails and no actual support.
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• What sort of timeframe can we expect to match with surrogates/intended parents? Does the timeframe match with our own expectations?
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• What happens if we do not match within a set timeframe? Do we get a full or partial refund? The Surrogacy Australia Support Service has refused to refund intended parents dissatisfied with the service.
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• What associations does the service or agency have with other organisations? Why do people or organisations recommend joining SASS – are the working for, or receiving referrals in exchange for suggesting SASS? Do they declare any conflict of interest with organisations they refer you to? Who is making money and claiming to be not-for-profit or charitable? The fertility industry makes a lot of money from surrogacy, are you happy with who is profiting from your cash?

You should also get independent legal advice.  It is illegal to facilitate a surrogacy arrangement for money and illegal to advertise a willingness to do so. You can find out more information about surrogacy laws in Australia.

So if SASS is not a viable, or legal option for finding a surrogate in Australia, what do we do? Most arrangements find a surrogate in their existing friend and family circles, while many others find a surrogate through online surrogacy communities. Facebook groups in each state will arrange catch-ups, picnics and dinners and social gatherings, which anyone in the community can organise and attend. Many of my clients have found a surrogate after sharing their story with their friends and family, which has then been shared with their wider community. You never know where you might find a surrogate – and all those places are likely freely accessible without needing to join an illegitimate matching service.

A  regulated framework that requires surrogacy matching services to be licensed and adhere to strict standards, such as that in New York, would benefit intended parents and surrogates in Australia. Such a framework would also necessarily regulate ‘surrogacy awards.‘

There are surrogacy consultants and third-party brokers who will happily take your money and may offer services and promises that are unnecessary and may even break laws. Beware consultants who take commissions from agencies and clinics and do not declare the conflict of interest when they take your money and refer you to the agency which is paying them. I have been offered between $2000 and $10,000 to refer people to overseas agencies and clinics – the practice is unethical and illegal.

Sarah has published a book, More Than Just a Baby: A Guide to Surrogacy for Intended Parents and Surrogates, the only guide to surrogacy in Australia.

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