Allowing couples to make surrogacy arrangements locally would help reduce the exploitation of women, according to the European Law Students’ Association – Elsa Malta.
In a policy paper titled ‘Onto Surrogacy Regulation’, which was presented to Civil Rights Minister Helena Dalli today, the students call for surrogacy to be regulated to prevent couples from bypassing national legislation.
They analysed European Court of Human Rights cases, also identifying some of the problems it faced when dealing with cases on surrogacy agreements. Principles and guidelines issued by the court should help pave the way for the implementation of principals and guidelines, they said.
“Other aspects of reproductive rights has been discussed in great detail, but not enough light has been shed on other specific aspects, that of which include surrogacy,” the law students said.
Rights and duties of the surrogate mother would need to be clearly stipulated
The rights and duties of the surrogate mother would need to be clearly stipulated, the students insisted, highlighting cases in other countries, mainly poorer, under-developed ones, where women would enter into a surrogacy agreement for very low prices.
“We want to enthuse policymakers into considering the entire spectrum when it comes to regulating surrogacy, and taking into consideration the legal arguments displaced throughout,” the law students said.
Last year, when the government said it would be reviewing the IVF law, Nisa Laburisti, in a position paper, asked the government to consider making surrogacy, egg and sperm donation and embryo freezing legal. At the time, a number of organisations came out in favour of surrogacy while others dismissed the suggestion entirely.
In the policy paper, the law students also urged caution when outlining why couples would resort to surrogacy and insisted background checks on both the prospective parents as well as the surrogate mother would need to be compulsory.
By publishing the paper, the students said they wanted to highlight the grey areas in Maltese legislation while also giving an overview of how surrogacy is regulated in other countries.
“We feel that it is important to get the ball rolling on a national discussion on reproductive rights,” one of the students said.