The Irish Government seems intent on denying the importance of the biological tie between parent and child. Ultimately this is an attack on the right of a child to know and be raised, where possible, by their natural parents.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the Government plans to introduce surrogacy legislation which will deny this right.

Last week, they declared their intent to appeal a recent ruling by the High Court, allowing the genetic mother of children born to a surrogate (birth) mother to be named on the children’s birth cert.

The Government’s issue with the ruling is that it ties motherhood “exclusively to [the] genetic connection”.

This, they worry “may also have the effect of tying the hands of the Oireachtas in how it may legislate, in the future, for the complex areas of surrogacy and assisted human reproduction”.  

For this Government, the numerous ethical problems presented by surrogacy, recognised in the laws of most European countries, including the fact that it splits motherhood, potentially creating confusion for the child, and the fact that surrogacy often involves the exploitation of women from poorer countries are not problems at all.

Instead, the problem is that they regard the High Court’s ruling as too restrictive.  

In January, the Iona Institute produced a paper, The Ethical Case Against Surrogate Motherhood: What We Can Learn From the Law of Other European Countries.

It sets out the problems with surrogacy, and also makes the point that in many other European Countries, including Germany, Austria and Italy, surrogacy is banned precisely because of the ambiguity it creates about who the real mother of the child is after a surrogate birth.

Under Austrian law, for example, surrogacy is banned because it violates the principle “mater semper certa est” (the mother is always certain).  

The European Court of Human Rights has upheld the right of Council of Europe member states to maintain such laws.

You can download the paper here.