A meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy was suspended twice after a Senator was attacked for  questioning witnesses about criticisms that commercial surrogacy involves the commodification of children and the exploitation of women.

The committee met on Thursday morning to hear from parents who engaged in international commercial surrogacy.

Independent Senator Sharon Keoghan said she “wholeheartedly objects to the commercialisation of the human child and the relegation of women to the status of simply incubator or wombs for hire irrespective of whether you are heterosexual, single, lesbian gay or trans”.

“Surrogacy I believe is harmful, it is exploitative and it is unethical. I don’t believe it is everyone’s right to have a child. It is a privilege to give birth and it can be dangerous even to those with the best medical attention.”

She said she did not want to see the birth mother “airbrushed” or “whitewashed” out of the process.

Senator Lynn Ruane said it took an emotional toll for the witnesses to tell their story.

She told Ms Keoghan to “check your Christian values when you walk in every day. Respect, compassion, love. You don’t show it. You are crude and cold, and it is not OK.”

Ms Keoghan replied that Ms Ruane’s comments were “very personal” and said “this is not an echo chamber for one view. It has to be a chamber for all views”.

Sinn Féin TD Kathleen Funchion, who was chairing the session, suspended the meeting after she demanded that Senator Keoghan apologise to a witness for saying he was “lucky” to be there given the potential countervailing witnesses the committee refused to hear from.