Surrogacy: A legal quagmire

RTÉ performed a major public service on Monday evening with the screening of Her Body, Our Babies.

The documentary focused on the journey undertaken by a Co Clare couple to access a surrogate mother in India, and ultimately take their newborn twins home to Miltown Malbay. In terms of surrogacy, the screening effectively marched the issue to the gates of Leinster House.

Surrogacy is one of those issues that has a unique existence in this country. Like abortion, it doesn’t officially exist. Like more conventional assisted human reproduction, it has no legal standing. And like abortion, assisted human reproduction and assisted suicide, it raises the type of moral questions that politicians are wholly unwilling to address, thereby consigning thousands of citizens to further anguish and worry.