Health Minister Leo Varadkar has today asked Cabinet to approve the drafting of another Bill on Surrogacy, Assisted Human Reproduction and Associated Research.
Under the proposals, at least one of those involved in any surrogacy arrangement would have to be a genetic parent. The legislation, if approved, would also regulate the areas of sperm and embryo donation and the screening of embryos for serious genetic diseases. It’s expected it would ban commercial surrogacy. Currently all forms of surrogacy are banned in several EU countries including France and Germany.
The Bill will require lengthy consultation, and it’s unclear if it could be passed within the lifetime of the government, which expires, at latest, in April 2016.
