The parents of children born through surrogacy say that they hope that they are approaching the “final step” towards becoming their children’s legal parents.
Surrogacy advocates gathered outside Leinster House on Thursday as the Oireachtas Committee on Surrogacy’s report was discussed in the Dáil.
During the discussion, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly vowed they would be recognised as their children’s legal parents.
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He said he hopes that the legislation will be passed before the Dáil rises in mid-July.
There are currently no laws in Ireland on surrogacy. The surrogate mother who gives birth to the child is the legal mother.
If the father in a couple going through surrogacy is the child’s biological father, he is considered the legal father.
The other “intending parent” has no rights to the child. They can apply for guardianship after two years, but this expires when the child is 18.
Fine Gael Senator Mary Seery Kearney led the surrogate families into the Dáil yesterday on Thursday. She and her husband David welcomed their daughter Scarlett, 7, through a surrogate in India in 2015.
She said that it was an “emotional day” and that she was thinking about her own surrogate.
“It’s another step forward and closer, but my surrogacy journey isn't over yet.
“It won't be until I walk out of that court with a parental order and the State recognising me as my child's mother.”
Ms Seery Kearney also met the couple who inspired her own surrogacy journey for the first time.
Fiona Whyte and Sean Malone from Clare travelled to India in 2013 to pursue surrogacy. This was highlighted in an RTÉ documentary.
They said that nearly 10 years later, their surrogacy journey is still ongoing.
Ms Whyte explained: “We went to Mumbai in India in 2014 to have our twins Donal and Ruby.
“What inspired us to make the documentary was because when we were actually going on our journey, we couldn't get any information anywhere.
“We hadn’t met anybody who had been through that journey. We'd already been through the IVF and the attempted adoption process. By going public, we inspired others.
“We spoke about this in 2013 in the media and at the time there were promises that legislation would be brought in.
“I didn't think we'd wait 10 years. But we’re almost there. This step is monumental. The report is the second last step before we introduce legislation.”
Fiona Whyte, also from Clare, said she and her partner were “at the end of the road” before they travelled to India. Her daughter Kate was born via surrogacy in May 2015.
Like Ms Whyte, she is still not considered her daughter’s legal parent.
Ms Grennan: “It's very emotional. In my situation, I'm separated from my daughter's biological father. So it's incredibly important for me to have the legal standing.
“I’m lucky that I’m co-parenting my daughter, but not everyone is in that situation. It's very important that the non-biological second parent has those legal rights.”
Minister Donnelly said that he hopes legislation will be passed before the Dáil rises for the summer in mid-July that will ensure parents of children born through surrogacy will be considered their legal parents.
He said: “You must have full recognition and rights, under law, as the parents of your children. Your children deserve, must have, and will have, the full protections of that recognition and these rights.”
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