The Irish Times has been running a series of articles focusing on some of the issues surrounding Assisted Human Reproduction (AHR). These include the issues of surrogacy, conception involving donor sperm or eggs and the treatment of embryos which result from IVF.

One of the notable features of this series is that it has looked at these issues mainly from the point of view of adults, rather than children.

In 2009, Breda O’Brien wrote a paper for the Iona Institute entitled Making Babies: Regulating the AHR Industry in response to recommendations made by the Government-appointed Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction (CAHR) in 2005.

The CAHR report had recommended legalising surrogacy, and that that “[t]he child born through surrogacy should be presumed to be that of the commissioning couple”.

However, Breda argues that surrogacy is “inherently exploitative and unfair to the child”. Referring to the dissent to the CAHR recommendations made by commission member Christine O’Rourke, she asks what the position would be if a surrogate mother changed her mind.

“Would ‘reasonable force’ be used? In Britain, apparently yes. The courts found against a surrogate, a biological and gestational mother, in favour of the biological father, even though she had had exclusive care of the child for seventeen months. The boy’s natural father was escorted by court officials to remove the child.

“The offensive term, ‘rent-a-womb’, illustrates how surrogates are regarded. The manager of an agency that facilitates gay men in finding surrogates and egg donors argues that egg donors should be selected on looks, brains, youth, health and psychological soundness, whereas surrogates should be selected on how well they gestate babies, and how well they work with others.

“One doctor states that most egg donors are smart college girls, while surrogate mothers typically are stay home mothers of a lower-socio economic class.

“CAHR acknowledges that Irish law would more than likely grant parentage to the surrogate mother, rendering adoption necessary, but still say surrogate mothers should receive reasonable expenses even though any hint of a commercial aspect would disqualify from adoption.”

There are myriad issues to consider when looking at the fertility industry. It would be nice if the rights of the child were among those considered first, since children are more vulnerable than the parents seeking to avail of these services.