Surrogacy & Law Reform in Ireland

I am travelling on a Churchill Fellowship between March and May 2025, to research best practice surrogacy to inform law reform in Australia. My journey takes me from Melbourne to Cape Town, Ireland and England, Canada and the USA to meet with surrogacy experts, advocates, intended parents and surrogates around the world.

I visited Ireland, to meet with surrogacy community campaigners, lawyers and advocates for change.

In 2022, the Houses of Oireachtas Joint Committee on International Surrogacy reviewed Ireland’s existing surrogacy laws, accepting submissions from the community and surrogacy professionals. The Committee’s final report was published in July 2022, recommending an overhaul of the surrogacy legal framework within Ireland and for Irish citizens engaging international surrogacy. The Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Act of 2024 introduced a new framework for domestic and international surrogacy in Ireland.

Some of the incoming changes are for the recognition of parentage for children already born through surrogacy, while other changes will impact future surrogacy arrangements, in Ireland and overseas.

I caught the bus to Kilkenny for the chance to sit down with surrogacy lawyer Annette Hickey, who has been working in surrogacy and fertility law in Ireland for over a decade. Annette and I talked about the campaign for reform, and how advocates and community members joined forces to draw attention to the campaign and the rights of children born through surrogacy.

I was lucky enough to meet with former Senator, Mary Seery Kearney of the Oireachtas (parliament). Mary has been a powerful advocate, pushing other politicians to commit to law reform, but also sharing her own story of becoming a parent through surrogacy. I am struck by how impactful story-telling and lived experiences are to bringing issues to the forefront of law-makers minds.

Later that day, I met with Ciara Merrigan from Irish Families Through Surrogacy, in a castle no less! Ciara generously shared with me her own story of becoming a parent through surrogacy and how she and other IFTS parents led the campaign with novel and interesting ways.

Finally, I met with surrogacy lawyer Fiona Duffy, who generously took me on a tour of Dublin and the beachside towns east of Dublin including Dun Laoghaire. We had a sparkling, beautiful day to see the ocean and the view was amazing! Later, we shared lunch and talked about Fiona’s thoughts on child and surrogacy law reform.

Some key take-aways from this amazing visit:

1. Sharing stories and the lived experiences of surrogates, intended parents and children born is crucial to campaigning for reform. We must keep focus on the interests of children born through surrogacy, who deserve for their parentage, citizenship and identity to be recognised equally.
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2. We – advocates, industry professionals and community members – must maintain our ethics and integrity and call out those in the industry who engage in unethical practices. I was encouraged that my Irish colleagues were as passionate about this as I am.
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3. We need to regulate the surrogacy industry, to prevent unethical practices and protect all parties in a surrogacy arrangement.

Ireland is beautiful, but I was blown away by the warm welcome, hospitality and generosity of my hosts. The surrogacy community transcends oceans and borders and I am so proud to be part of it.

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 seeks to find ways to make surrogacy more accessible within Australia, to reduce the need for intended parents to travel overseas for surrogacy.

I’ll be back in the office in late May, and my Churchill report will be published later in the latter half of 2025.