Surrogacy
Updated: May 17/10
Canada
Under the Assisted Human Reproduction (AHR) Act, it is illegal to:
• Pay, offer to pay, or advertise payment, to a surrogate mother.
• Accept payment for arranging for the services of a surrogate, offer to make such an arrangement for payment, or advertise the arranging of such services.
• Counsel, induce, or perform any medical procedures to assist a woman to become a surrogate if she is under 21.
• Reimburse a surrogate for an expenditure incurred by her in relation to her surrogacy, except in accordance with regulations and a licence, and where a receipt is provided.
• Reimburse a surrogate for loss of work-related income incurred during her pregnancy, unless a qualified medical practitioner certifies, in writing, that continuing to work may pose a risk to her health or that of the embryo/fetus; and the reimbursement is made in accordance with the regulations and a licence, with a receipt is provided.
Criminal penalty: A fine of up to $500,000 and up to 10 years in jail.
The Assisted Human Reproduction Act also requires that counselling services be made available prior to the procedure.
Agencies
In keeping with the above-mentioned prohibitions of the AHR Act banning payment and advertising, we do not list agencies, websites or other 'matching services' offering surrogacy services. If you do decide to work with such a business, please keep in mind that they are part of a totally unregulated industry (whether in Canada, the USA or elsewhere), so be sure to take every precaution you can to protect your own interests as well as those of any child(ren) who may be born.
Articles
• The Body, Emotions & Intentions: Challenges of Pre-conception Arrangements for Health Care Providers (By Juliet Guichon)
• Surrogate Motherhood and Its Human Costs (By Suzanne Scorsone)
• Wombs for Rent: Stop the Infant Merchants (By Juliet Guichon)
• Surrogacy might be good for adults - but not children (By Breda O'Brien. Jun 27/09. Irish Times)
• What happens when surrogacy goes wrong (By Louisa Ghevaert, partner at a UK fertility & parenting law firm. Feb 9/10. BioNews)
Blogs by surrogate offspring
• Son of a Surrogate
Fact sheet (by the Infertility Network) *
Information Kit (See Store to order)
Support Groups for parents
• Childlessness Overcome Through Surrogacy (COTS) (UK)
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans (LGBT) Parenting Network (Toronto)
• Organization of Parents Through Surrogacy (OPTS) (USA)
• TASC-Parents Pursuing Surrogacy (PPS-L)
• TASC-Surrogate Mothers (SM-L)
* PDF file. Requires Adobe Reader - download it free here.
