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

Joining SASS is not a requirement to proceed with surrogacy 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. Less than 0.5% of arrangements met via the Surrogacy Australia Support Service.

The Surrogacy Australia Support Service itself only claims to have matched 1-2 of arrangements per year. Many intended parents pay over $1300 to join Surrogacy Australia Support Service with the hope of finding a surrogate, but are unsuccessful. It is my professional opinion that you are more likely to find a surrogate on Facebook, than through SASS, and this is supported by my records of over 600 Australian surrogacy arrangements.

I advise hundreds 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.

On social media, 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 advertising. If there are only 1-2 matches facilitated by SASS each year, it does not stand to reason that they are responsible 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 nor does it require any qualifications of its staff. 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.

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.

I have been questioned why I am so critical of the Surrogacy Australia Support Service. I do not benefit from being publicly critical of SASS. What I observe is many intended parents feeling desperate to find a surrogate and being lured to join Surrogacy Australia on the promise of a surrogate that likely does not exist. Intended parents deserve to know that they are vulnerable to exploitation.

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 questions you should consider, before signing up:

• Is the service operating within the law? Surrogacy laws in Australia vary. In South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory, it is illegal to introduce, match or facilitate a surrogacy arrangement. Other states including 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.
  .
• How many successful surrogate/intended parent matches have they made this past year? How many pregnancies and births have there been in the past few years? The Surrogacy Australia Support Service claims credit for only 8 matches over 5 years. 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.
  .
• Are you paying to access resources that are freely available elsewhere? The Surrogacy Australia Support Service member portal used to share resources that are freely available on my Blog, without my consent. Why are you paying for resources that can be accessed for free?
  .
• How many surrogates are available and ready to talk to intended parents? There are always more intended parents than surrogates, but having a sense of what the ratio is can help you manage your expectations. The Surrogacy Australia Support Service may have up to a hundred intended parents and no more than one or two prospective surrogates over the course of a year.
  .
• What are their screening processes, for surrogates and intended parents? And how are the staff qualified to provide the screening – do they have qualifications in the medical, counselling or legal fields? If they are screening, what guarantees of a positive outcome are they offering? Staff are Surrogacy Australia do not have any qualifications in providing psycho-social education or support. By contract, lawyers, counsellors and clinicians are all regulated within our respective fields.
  .
• 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?
  .
• 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.
  .
• What sort of timeframe can we expect to match with surrogates/intended parents? Does the timeframe match with our own expectations?
  .
• 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.
  .
• What associations does the service or agency have with other organisations? Why do other organisations recommend joining SASS – are they 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.

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.

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.