80 overseas surrogate births for parents here

MORE than 80 children have been born abroad by surrogacy arrangements to Irish parents since 2011, new figures show.

Around 75% of the children were born in India, according to figures determined through requests for emergency travel documents, which were obtained by the Medical Independent.

The publication said the Department of Health’s chief bioethics officer, Dr Siobhán O’Sullivan, travelled to India for a study visit in July 2015, alongside representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The visit was described in correspondence from Minister for Health Leo Varadkar to Minister for Children and Youth Affairs James Reilly in September 2015.

In the letter, obtained under Freedom of Information legislation, Minister Varadkar noted that the Department of Justice published guidelines on surrogacy-related issues in 2012.

‘Given that these guidelines have been in place for over three years, and in light of the proposed legislative changes [in Ireland], it was agreed that it would be useful to arrange a study visit to India,’ he said.

According to Minister Varadkar’s letter, the Irish delegation engaged with Indian government officials, i nternational embassies, lawyers, doctors and NGOs involved with surrogacy. In l ate 2015, Indian authorities instructed clinics to stop accepting overseas clients for commercial surrogacy services.

Separately, at a Fine Gael event in the run-up to the gay marriage Referendum last May, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said there would be no surrogacy law brought in before the generalelection.

There would be a ban on commercial surrogacy, he said at the time, but other aspects were extremely complex.