Women Speak Tasmania (WST) has signed the Melbourne Declaration to Abolish Surrogacy, joining a growing national call for the abolition of all forms of surrogacy in Australia.
The Declaration comes as Australia awaits the Australian Law Reform Commission’s final report into surrogacy laws, with the national review considering the future of Australia’s fragmented regulatory framework.
Australia currently prohibits commercial surrogacy while permitting altruistic surrogacy under varying State and Territory frameworks. The distinction is often presented as a safeguard against exploitation.
But we questioned whether the absence of payment resolves the fundamental concerns surrounding surrogacy. Dr Elizabeth Caballero said:
“The issue is not simply whether surrogacy is commercial or altruistic. It is whether a woman’s body should be used to produce a child for someone else in the first place.”
“The desire to become a parent, however genuine, does not create a right to another person’s body or reproductive capacity”.
“Pregnancy and childbirth carry physical, medical and personal consequences for the woman undertaking the pregnancy. Calling an arrangement “altruistic” does not remove those realities”.
“Questions surrounding identity, biological origins, motherhood and the long-term interests of children cannot be treated as secondary considerations in law reform.”
The Declaration calls for the abolition of all forms of surrogacy rather than further entrenchment of the practice through increasingly detailed regulation.
We urge governments not to assume that the appropriate response to the problems identified in surrogacy is simply more regulation, more safeguards or greater national consistency.
The existence of safeguards does not establish that the underlying practice is acceptable.
Australia should instead consider whether the use of women’s reproductive capacity to produce children for others is compatible with the rights and interests of women and children.
We stand with the Melbourne Declaration to Abolish Surrogacy and call on Australian governments to move towards the abolition of surrogacy in all its forms.
ENDS
Media Contact:
Dr Elizabeth Caballero, retired GP,
President, Women Speak Tasmania
Attachment: Melbourne Declaration to Abolish Surrogacy