Case Study On Family – Surrogacy & Birth Technologies

Resource Description

My notes for the Family case study of surrogacy and birth technologies. Also has an essay plan

CASE STUDY
Surrogacy and birth technologies

What are ‘birth technologies’?

• Infertility is the ability to fall pregnant after 12 months. It affects about 1 in 6 Australian couples of reproductive ages.
• ‘Birth technologies’ refers to the reproductive technology used primarily for infertility treatments. It is also known as fertility treatment.
• ‘Birth technologies’ refers to ‘any legal insemination or artificial measure which results in the birth of a child’.
• The purpose of birth technologies is to achieve pregnancy in procedures such as artificial insemination, in vitro fertilisation and surrogacy.

What kind of legal issues exist?

• Birth technology has created many legal issues, from paternity to rights of inheritance to who has care of and control over the child.
• Advances in birth technology also mean that it is no longer possible to presume the identity of the biological parents.
• Many of these issues arise with surrogacy.

Surrogacy

• Surrogacy is an arrangement where a woman agrees to bring to gestation in her uterus the ovum of another woman fertilised outside the first woman’s body and introduced artificially.
• For many women it may be the only means by which they can have their own biological child.
• Types of surrogacy:
• Altruistic
• Commercial

Commercial surrogacy

• Commercial surrogacy is not legal in Australia.
• Under s. 9 of the Surrogacy Act 2010 (NSW), a commercial surrogacy arrangement exists if:
• The arrangement involves the provision of a fee, reward or other material benefit or advantage to a person for the person or another person