Male same sex couples and single men will be able to have children through surrogacy under proposed amendments to Western Australian law.
Lawyer Simon Creek from HHG Legal told 9 News Perth, now that same-sex marriage has been legalised in Australia, it follows that the surrogacy laws should change too.
“At the end of the day we’ve got one, why shouldn’t we have the other? The country has voted on one issue and I don’t think if they’d been given the chance they would have given a different answer on this one,” he said.
Creek said his number one concern is that the bill doesn’t change enough. “It is still too hard to find a child, have a child through a surrogate right across Australia…”
If the bill passes, men in WA will be granted the same access to altruistic surrogacy that women and heterosexual couples have had since 2009.
Altruistic surrogacy means the mother carries the child for no (known) financial gain. Only medical costs, leave, and other out of pocket expenses are usually paid for by the “adopting” parents.
“I think as a country we’re still getting our heads around the idea of commercial surrogacy,” Creek went on to say. “The idea of potentially selling a life, being paid to be involved in this process, again I think the Australian people are still catching up and with that so are our laws.”
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