Overview
Surrogacy involves the establishment and carriage of a pregnancy by a surrogate for a commissioning couple.
Extensive counselling, psychiatric assessment and independent legal advice must be sought for any surrogacy arrangement being provided through IVFAustralia. This is to minimise the risk of a negative outcome for any of the parties involved.
IVFAustralia will only facilitate surrogacy in the following situations:
In order to reduce the risks of surrogacy to both the commissioning couple and the proposed surrogate, we have a number of conditions that have to be fulfilled before we will offer this treatment. These are:
- The commissioning parent must have a defined medical disorder that makes it either impossible or unacceptably dangerous for a baby to be carried in the uterus. IVFAustralia does not offer surrogacy for couples where the problem is solely that IVF has been repeatedly unsuccessful or that there have been repeated miscarriages of unknown cause.
- The gestational surrogate must fulfil ALL of the following criteria:
Her age must be greater than 25 years and less than the age of the natural menopause (less than the 52nd birthday). The only exception to this will be the unique circumstance whereby the gestational carrier is carrying a child on behalf of her daughter or daughter in-law. In this circumstance a maximum age of less than 55th birthday will apply.
She must have given birth to a baby, which has become a healthy child.
She must not have a past history of pregnancy exacerbated illnesses or pregnancy complications or have a current illness that is likely to be exacerbated by pregnancy.
She must have an established relationship with the commissioning parents for a period of no less than 2 years by the time of the embryo transfer.
- Neither the carrier or the would-be recipient can suffer from a significant psychiatric disorder that would impair either the decision-making around the surrogacy process, including at the time of the birth or impair the ability of the commissioning parents to care for the child.
- The gestational carrier must not use her own oocytes although a third party donor is permissible
Due to the risks involved in surrogacy arrangements, IVFAustralia will not provide treatment involving surrogacy unless all of the above criteria are fulfilled.
Note that, while we will keep you informed about your likely suitability, you still need to be aware that if we receive a report that suggests that surrogacy is not the right treatment for you, our Ethics Committee may not be prepared to approve us proceeding with surrogacy in your case.
The process:
A medical consultation with the commissioning couple and the proposed surrogate mother and partner (if any) is the first step. During this consultation, the Assisted Reproductive Technologies and medical treatment required for the particular surrogacy situation will be explained.
Counselling for the commissioning couple and the surrogate and her partner is undertaken where implications regarding their decision and genetic issues will be discussed.
The commissioning couple and the surrogate and her partner may be required to have independent psychiatric and obstetric assessment.
The commissioning couple and the surrogacy couple must each obtain independent legal advice from a solicitor/barrister (IVFAustralia can assist with this process), who will be required to provide IVFAustralia with a written certificate confirming that they have advised the couple on their rights and obligations and the implications for any children arising from the surrogacy arrangement.
All relevant information will be submitted to
IVFAustralia's Ethics Committee for final approval.
After approval, if the commissioning woman is using her own eggs, she will undergo an IVF treatment cycle whereby her ovaries are stimulated and her eggs are collected in day surgery and fertilised with her partner’s sperm. The embryo created will then be inseminated into the surrogate.
Once a pregnancy is confirmed, ongoing consultation with the clinic counsellor will take place. This is to ensure that the full implications of the surrogacy, particularly in relation to plans for delivery and handing over the baby, have been discussed.
Under the Surrogacy Bill 2010, the commissioning couple can apply for the parentage of the child from the surrogacy arrangement to be transferred to them. The child is deemed to be the child of the birth mother until the parentage order legally takes effect.