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‘A spit in the face’: surrogate kids rewrite the rules · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian, here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, September 2, 2026. Every kid wants to know
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  Speaker 1: they were wanted. Children born to surrogate mothers know that
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  Speaker 1: for sure. But they also have very strong opinions about
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  Speaker 1: the strict laws governing surrogacy in Australia. And some of
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  Speaker 1: their thoughts might surprise you. Today, inside these very modern families.
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  Speaker 2: I have a good story to tell whenever people ask
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  Speaker 2: how I was born. I was the opposite of an
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  Speaker 2: accidental pregnancy, so I feel very wanted.
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  Speaker 3: I also think it shows that there are lots of
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  Speaker 3: different ways to make a family and that all of
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  Speaker 3: them can be full of love.
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  Speaker 1: These are submissions made by children born through surrogacy to
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  Speaker 1: a review by the Australian Law Reform Commission. They're being
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  Speaker 1: read by voice actors. Surrogacy is legal in Australia, but
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  Speaker 1: very few families are using it. And that's because here,
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  Speaker 1: women are only allowed to carry a baby for hopeful
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  Speaker 1: parents if the choice is, quote, altruistic and there are
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  Speaker 1: no commercial considerations.
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  Speaker 3: They're not just giving their body, they're giving their time,
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  Speaker 3: going to doctor's appointments, missing work and going through a lot.
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  Speaker 3: They're helping people to have a family and that's a
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  Speaker 3: big deal and of course they should be paid for that.
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  Speaker 4: A donor and certainly not the surrogate are not the parents.
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  Speaker 5: Do not let the surrogate have the option to keep
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  Speaker 5: the baby when they are born. It's such a letdown
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  Speaker 5: for the family and mainly because it is their baby
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  Speaker 5: and not the surrogate's.
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  Speaker 6: I just thought that the way that the kids in
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  Speaker 6: these answers were so open about their responses to these questions.
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  Speaker 1: This is The Australian's social affairs editor, Stephen Lunn.
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  Speaker 6: And I thought that was quite interesting that they're so
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  Speaker 6: strong on these issues.
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  Speaker 4: I think it is a spit in the face to
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  Speaker 4: the soon-to-be parent. Imagine if a contractor or employee decided
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  Speaker 4: to split midway through and try to take the profits.
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  Speaker 4: That would be illegal and morally disingenuous. They shouldn't be allowed.
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  Speaker 6: They were described as adolescents, so these kids are between
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  Speaker 6: 12 and 14 years old, and they've been really honest
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  Speaker 6: in their opinions, as kids that age tend to be,
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  Speaker 6: open and heartfelt and I think that the Law Reform
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  Speaker 6: Commission will have to look at those viewpoints and from
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  Speaker 6: that perspective really thoughtfully and carefully. As to what they
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  Speaker 6: actually talked about, I mean, one of the questions is,
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  Speaker 6: what's one of the good things about surrogacy? And one
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  Speaker 6: of the kids who answered simply wrote two words in
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  Speaker 6: block capitals as they do. I exist. Was their answer.
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  Speaker 6: Another one put in that they have something Interesting to
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  Speaker 6: use when they play two truths and a lie. Quite
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  Speaker 6: like that one. What's bad about it? They talked a
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  Speaker 6: lot about bullying at school and the difficulties of explaining
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  Speaker 6: how they were born to their friends. And one of
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  Speaker 6: the kids said that they had created a PowerPoint so
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  Speaker 6: that every time that they were asked how they were born,
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  Speaker 6: this child would bring out their PowerPoint to show them
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  Speaker 6: how it worked.
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  Speaker 5: I honestly don't care. I rarely think about it. And
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  Speaker 5: when I do like every two months, I just think
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  Speaker 5: it's cool.
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  Speaker 1: It's such a beautiful expression of their free will and
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  Speaker 1: of their strong opinions. Of course, every kid wants to
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  Speaker 1: be wanted and wants to feel like their parents really
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  Speaker 1: wanted them around. And there's certainly no doubt of that
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  Speaker 1: with surrogacy arrangements. But I think one of the questions
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  Speaker 1: Australians are grappling with as we consider the idea of surrogacy,
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  Speaker 1: is commercial surrogacy something we should allow here or should
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  Speaker 1: we just allow people to go overseas and do it,
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  Speaker 1: is that what happens to the relationship with the birth mother?
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  Speaker 1: What are the rights of the woman who carries the baby?
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  Speaker 1: Did the kids reflect on that much or is it
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  Speaker 1: all about them?
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  Speaker 6: The questions were, I guess, made a little bit adolescent friendly.
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  Speaker 6: So they were asked, should the surrogate mother be able
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  Speaker 6: to keep the baby, for instance? And at present in
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  Speaker 6: the law, an intended parent or the intended parent's need
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  Speaker 6: to actually make an application to become the parents of
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  Speaker 6: the child. So on the birth certificate at present, the
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  Speaker 6: surrogate mother is the parent on the birth certificate and
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  Speaker 6: then the intended parents come in with a process after that.
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  Speaker 6: So one of the things that the Law Reform Commission
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  Speaker 6: is looking at is whether or not that should change.
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  Speaker 6: And these kids were very adamant that the intended parents
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  Speaker 6: should be the parents from the get-go. And so they
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  Speaker 6: see them as their parents and don't see any particular
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  Speaker 6: reason why that shouldn't happen.
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  Speaker 1: In Australia, we don't have a situation where you can
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  Speaker 1: arrange for a surrogate just because you don't want to
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  Speaker 1: carry a baby yourself. You generally have to demonstrate that
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  Speaker 1: you are unable to have a baby yourself. And then
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  Speaker 1: you step into, if you're doing this overseas with a
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  Speaker 1: commercial surrogacy arrangement, you step into the risk that you
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  Speaker 1: face in any foreign country that you are not a citizen.
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  Speaker 1: You might find your baby and the surrogate mother being
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  Speaker 1: preferenced by the jurisdiction where you are. I mean, that
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  Speaker 1: is terrifying for Australian parents, of course, the risk of
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  Speaker 1: losing their baby. And thinking about what those kids said,
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  Speaker 1: that's also something that would be nightmarish for the children,
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  Speaker 1: to be trapped between two systems.
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  Speaker 6: This should be the most joyful time, but instead this
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  Speaker 6: family is trapped and desperate. Well, a number of Aussie
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  Speaker 6: couples have found themselves in a nightmare situation following the
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  Speaker 6: sudden closure of a major surrogate clinic in Greece.
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  Speaker 1: Australian couples are anxiously awaiting DNA test results to prove
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  Speaker 1: newborn babies are their own. So that means, sensibly, we
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  Speaker 1: should be thinking about having these arrangements here, bringing these
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  Speaker 1: arrangements home to Australia. What do you think about the
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  Speaker 1: balance of questions there, Lani?
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  Speaker 4: You know.
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  Speaker 1: Is it possible, do you think, in a country like
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  Speaker 1: Australia to have commercial surrogacy arrangements that aren't exploitative?
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  Speaker 6: There will be people around the country that have very
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  Speaker 6: solid opinions both ways on this. But I think when
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  Speaker 6: you look at it, at the moment, the law is
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  Speaker 6: based on the idea of either altruistic or commercial surrogacy.
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  Speaker 6: They're the two prisms through which this is looked at
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  Speaker 6: currently under the law. The Law Reform Commission's very much
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  Speaker 6: of the view that those are in a way, an
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  Speaker 6: artificial construct, and that you can be both. You can
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  Speaker 6: be altruistic and deserve to be commercially compensated properly for
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  Speaker 6: your time and labor, and the other way around. Altruistic
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  Speaker 6: has connotations of doing good, whereas commercial has that other
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  Speaker 6: negative connotation of not doing good. The big difference that
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  Speaker 6: the Law Reform Commission is looking at in terms of
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  Speaker 6: that compensation issue is is expanding it quite a lot.
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  Speaker 6: As you mentioned that currently expenses can be claimed by
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  Speaker 6: a surrogate in Australia, bills, et cetera, doctor's bills. This
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  Speaker 6: would be looking to really take that further, including lost wages,
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  Speaker 6: childcare if the surrogate has other children during the pregnancy
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  Speaker 6: to cover that, and also a payment to cover the
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  Speaker 6: pain and hardship of going through a that may encourage
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  Speaker 6: more people in Australia to act as surrogates, which is
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  Speaker 6: what we're seeing at the moment, where people are not
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  Speaker 6: being able to access someone and then having to travel
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  Speaker 6: overseas to the areas where there's these fraught, complicated, potentially
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  Speaker 6: difficult legal situations that they might find themselves in. And
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  Speaker 6: that's both in developed countries like the US, where surrogacy
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  Speaker 6: is legal, or potentially in developing countries where it becomes,
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  Speaker 6: I guess, more of an ethical issue around exploitation.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up, should we be having a different conversation altogether?
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  Speaker 1: All of our systems to help people have a baby
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  Speaker 1: seem kind of broken, like there aren't enough sperm donors
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  Speaker 1: and there are all sorts of onerous rules and massive
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  Speaker 1: expense associated with egg freezing or embryo freezing. It's really
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  Speaker 1: hard to adopt a baby in Australia. And of course,
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  Speaker 1: the advent of contraception, sexual revolution has meant there just
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  Speaker 1: aren't thousands of unwanted babies in orphanages anymore in Australia
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  Speaker 1: that you might be able to adopt. Like if we
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  Speaker 1: fixed all those other systems, maybe we wouldn't really need
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  Speaker 1: to have this conversation.
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  Speaker 6: I think that there will still be circumstances where surrogacy
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  Speaker 6: would be the option that may best serve intended parents.
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  Speaker 6: But it's certainly a fraught area. And there is an
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  Speaker 6: overlay across it all of how much we should be
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  Speaker 6: interfering in these processes. And that's from, I guess, a
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  Speaker 6: religious point of view and ethical point of view and
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  Speaker 6: a moral point of view. And those aren't to be discounted.
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  Speaker 6: There's a lot of people out there who feel very
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  Speaker 6: strongly that surrogacy as a concept is not the right
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  Speaker 6: thing to do. Now, our legal system allows it. And
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  Speaker 6: so clearly it has that force of law behind it
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  Speaker 6: in all jurisdictions. And once that legal backing is there,
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  Speaker 6: then perhaps the next step is to make the process
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  Speaker 6: more accessible for people who want to do it.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: When the Law Reform Commission thinks about this, is their
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  Speaker 1: goal or is the terms of reference for them to
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  Speaker 1: essentially support idea of surrogacy and see how they can
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  Speaker 1: make it easier for couples? Or is it about a
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  Speaker 1: much more legalistic kind of intention?
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  Speaker 6: I think that their terms of reference are, they recognise
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  Speaker 6: that surrogacy is legal. They see that it's not being
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  Speaker 6: used particularly widely in Australia. And so they're looking at
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  Speaker 6: ways to support the legal system at the moment and
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  Speaker 6: But of course, there's 468 people who've made submissions to
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  Speaker 6: the commission, and certainly some of them are whether or
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  Speaker 6: not surrogacy should be available as of right in the
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  Speaker 6: first place. So there's quite a lot that the Law
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  Speaker 6: Reform Commission has to consider.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you know, the fact that surrogacy has given us
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  Speaker 1: these incredibly thoughtful children, I think, tells us that it's
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  Speaker 1: a good thing overall. Like, who could wish that these
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  Speaker 1: children weren't around or that these parents who have clearly
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  Speaker 1: raised kids to be articulate and thoughtful shouldn't have had children.
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  Speaker 1: It's a really lovely insight and thanks for bringing it.
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  Speaker 6: To us, Lonnie. It's a pleasure.
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  Speaker 1: Stephen Lunn is The Australian's social affairs editor. You can
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  Speaker 1: read all Lunny scoops anytime at theaustralian.com.au.