Kate Emery: Changes to WA’s laws on surrogacy are long overdue and welcome

The recipe for making a baby hasn’t changed all that much over the years. I’ll go light on the details for anyone who’d like it all to come as a lovely surprise, but generally speaking, if you put a sperm and an egg together you might wind up with a baby. Although the recipe has stayed the same, the rules for who is allowed in the kitchen have changed with the increased availability of fertility treatments. In vitro fertilisation and altruistic surrogacy (where the surrogate mother does not receive monetary compensation — the only kind of surrogacy legal in Australia) have opened the doors to parenthood to those who would have missed out even a few generations ago . . . so long as your gender correlates with your birth certificate, or you’re straight, of course. Well, in 2022 WA is finally — finally! — inching a step closer to allowing more people to experience the joy of trying to decode a tiny infant’s sobs at 2am. The appointment of a panel to advise the WA Government on new-look laws for surrogacy and assisted reproductive technology is both incredibly welcome news and not before time, given we’ve been waiting on this since a 2019 review of the existing outdated laws that determine these things — the Human Reproductive Technology Act 1991 and the Surrogacy Act 2008 since you asked — made 122 recommendations. Perhaps the McGowan Government could be forgiven for having other priorities from early 2020 but the panel was to have been appointed last year. So, while the Government gets full marks for making it happen, it will be docked for tardiness. The panel will be chaired by Professor Roger Hart, an absolute boffin on infertility treatment who’s forgotten more about how to make a baby than you or I ever knew. He reminded this columnist that it was only two decades ago a person had to be married and have tried to get pregnant for three to four years before they could quality for IVF. In years to come, he suggested, there’s no doubt societies will reflect on 2022 and marvel at how backwards we were. Professor Hart said the entire process would be underpinned by the principle of equity of access and the belief that it was important for a child to have access to genetic information about its origins. Without getting too far ahead of the panel’s recommendations, the biggest changes to come out of this process will likely include allowing same-sex couples and single people access to IVF and surrogacy. Given WA is the only place in Australia where gay men cannot start a family, it’s about bloody time. Any readers who feel gay men shouldn’t be allowed to have kids are, of course, encouraged to write me a long letter thoughtfully explaining their reasoning before hurling it directly into the sun. The planned news laws should also open the doors to making it easier for transgender West Australians to start a family. The existing legislation, among other things, generally requires a person to prove infertility before getting access to IVF. For someone who has transitioned, providing that proof can be challenging. The changes are also aimed at making altruistic surrogacy easier than the current Simone Biles-worthy routine it can be. Commercial surrogacy, where would-be parents pay someone for the use of their womb rather than just covering costs, will remain illegal in WA. There could even be a crackdown on the ethically dubious practice of West Aussies going overseas to countries where commercial surrogacy is legal, given the possibility was raised in the 2019 review. The Government has been theoretically supportive of changes to these laws for a while yet but has shown a frustrating lack of willingness to get off its bum and do much about it. The bum is now, apparently, very much off the chair, and I welcome it. (The action, not the bum, sorry this metaphor really got away from me.) Having a baby is not for everyone. Plenty of people will be happy to live their lives without enduring a Code Brown. But the option to start a family is one that should be open to all West Australians, regardless of gender identity or sexuality. Modern families no longer necessarily resemble the mum, dad and two kids dynamic that we still see on TV trying to flog us a KFC bucket or laundry detergent. Our laws should reflect that fact.

Kate Emery: Changes to WA’s laws on surrogacy are long overdue and welcome

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