Lawyers for the State have told the High Court that any decision concerning the rights of a genetic mother and a child born through commercial surrogacy abroad would have significant and possibly unintended consequences for all areas of assisted human reproduction. Almost all countries in Europe either ban or don’t recognise commercial surrogacy because they believe it exploits low income women and commodifies children.

The court was told its decision could send “ripples” and “reverberations” through the system and affect legislation in many areas.

Senior Counsel Mary O’Toole was making submissions on behalf of the State in the case of a genetic mother of a boy born through international surrogacy who cannot be recorded as his legal mother.

Ms O’Toole said the court was being presented with “a deceptively simple situation and to make what seems like a deceptively simple answer to what is an enormously complex situation.”

She said if there was a finding of a right to recognition of genetic motherhood, then every piece of legislation would now have to be interpreted in the light of that finding and may be undermined by it.