Couples Have No “Right” To Surrogacy

Ireland

The Referendum Commission Chairman, Judge Kevin Cross, took part in a Q&A session on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today, shedding light on a number of issues that had been brought up during debates on the Marriage Equality referendum.

The commission is appointed before each referendum, is tasked with examining referendum proposals and then explaining them to the public in neutral terms. The chairman of the commission is nominated by the Chief Justice and then appointed by the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government. He is “answerable to nobody except the courts”.
The No campaign has continued to bring issues like adoption and surrogacy into debates, while members of the Yes campaign have accused them of attempting to confuse the public and argued that these issues are not relevant.

Judge Kevin Cross took three main issues and explained them this morning, discussing surrogacy, adoption and marriage between certain related people.

On surrogacy:
“There are no specific constitutional provisions on the issue as to surrogacy.

At present surrogacy services are not regulated in Ireland at all. So there is no formal legal right to access to surrogacy services and there is no prohibition on accessing them.

The government has announced plans to regulate surrogacy services and I understand that these plans are going to implemented no matter what the result of the referendum.

There is, as I said, no right of access to surrogacy. There is spoken of a right of a married couple to procreate but that right does not and has never been defined to include a right of access to artificial means such as surrogacy.”

On adoption:

“There is no right, first of all, for anyone to adopt a child. Certain people are eligible to apply for adoption but all decisions as to adoption, as were made clear last night by Dr Geoffrey Shannon, must be made in the best interest of the child.

This is now, since the Children’s Referendum, a constitutional requirement. So the referendum will not change that. A law has recently been passed [Children and Family Relationships Bill] that provides that same-sex couples are jointly eligible to apply to adopt a child. Married couples and individuals regardless of their sexual orientation have been eligible to adopt for many years.”

On marriage currently prohibited between certain related people:

“Well what the proposal in the marriage referendum states is marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex. The important point on that is in accordance with law.

At the moment, marriage or civil partnership is prohibited between certain close relatives. The government has said that the same prohibition will continue in relation to same sex marriages as opposite sex marriage. So I’m afraid Rachel, you won’t be able to marry your father-in-law or your mother-in-law whether the referendum is passed or not.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/