A.R.T., Surrogacy and Legal Parentage: A Comparative Legislative Review

Abstract

This is one of three Occasional Papers published by the Victorian Law Reform Commission as part of the Commission’s work on assisted reproduction and adoption. Occasional Papers provide background information which is relevant to questions which the Commission is considering as part of a law reform project. A central issue which arises in the context of assisted reproduction is how to recognise and protect the best interests of children who are conceived through assisted reproduction. The three Occasional Papers deal with different aspects of this question. This Paper examines how laws in the other Australian states, and in the United States,United Kingdom and Canada regulate access to assisted reproduction, control the use of surrogacy and deal with issues relating to parentage of children conceived through assisted reproduction. Generally, this legislation gives priority to protecting the best interests of children, but the way in which this is done varies considerably.This Occasional Paper was prepared by Adjunct Professor John Seymour, Faculty of Law, The Australian National University, who was formerly a Reader in the Faculty and has a special interest in laws relating to children and parenthood; and by Sonia Magri, who is a doctoral candidate at the University of Melbourne and lectures at Melbourne Law School. Sonia Magri was responsible for most of the original research for this Paper and the draft was jointly prepared by the two authors.

Keywords: Assisted Reproduction, Surrogacy, Adoption, Parentage, Children, ART, Comparative Law