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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-06-22 Daily Xml
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GESTATIONAL SURROGACY

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (15:40): Recently a northern suburbs couple received a birth certificate for their son—nothing unusual about that, you might think—other than this boy is seven years old and was born through legal surrogacy in another state of Australia. Many members of this chamber would know that this couple approached me in mid-2005, concerned that South Australian law did not allow altruistic gestational surrogacy, also that the then baby son's biological mother could not have her name appear on his birth certificate.

Certainly, as time went on, that lack of the lady's name on her son's birth certificate caused all sorts of problems when she wanted to enrol him at kindergarten or take him on an interstate plane trip without her husband. When they approached me in mid-2005, they had just been rejected by their local Labor MP who told them it was God's will that they not have children. After that initial contact, I corresponded with the then attorney-general and shadow ministers on my side of the parliament.

Subsequently, in 2006, after the election, I drafted the first Statutes Amendment (Surrogacy) Bill and introduced it into this chamber in June of 2006. In September of that year, that bill was referred to the Social Development Committee of the parliament, with my approval, and that committee did a very good report. It was good work. If you want to read about the issues involved in matters relating to people who have difficulty having their own children, it is worth a read of that report. However, that report did not come down until some 14 months later in November 2007.

Subsequently, I brought in a second bill which picked up some of the committee's recommendations, and that was in February 2008, and that bill passed this chamber on the voices in June 2008. Unfortunately, it was some 16 months later in November 2009 that the bill passed the House of Assembly 31 votes to 7, with a range of amendments that came in from the government. One of those was that the act would not come into operation for another 12 months.

After the election in 2010, I had a minor amendment bill passed to raise the age by which the little boy's mother's name could be put onto the birth certificate because, due to the delays in the House of Assembly, the age that we put in the original bill had passed. The act came into law in November 2010, and we were delighted with that. Subsequently on 14 April this year, the Youth Court determined that this family's wish to have the mother's and father's name on this young lad's birth certificate was set down. I am pleased to say that earlier this month the birth certificate was received by that family.

It has been a very long haul for them, but I pay tribute to this family, including the young lad who was well aware of his circumstances, for their persistence and patience. I am pleased to note that it was with great joy that the family recently received the birth certificate including the names of both biological parents for the first time. I am unable to name the family due to the requirements of the Youth Court which made its determination under the transitional arrangements included in the bill. In conclusion, I thank all members in this place who have supported the cause that I have taken up on behalf of this family over some six years.

Time expired.

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