Preparation before fertility treatment, when an individual or couple is looking at the implications for themselves and the child of having a child through gamete or embryo donation or using surrogacy. Once a child is born, the way in which the family deals with the child’s identity. The rationale for change The guidelines exclude some individuals and couples from assisted reproductive procedures to create a family Evidence indicates that, in general, people prefer to have as as possible biological relationship to their children. However, some medical or social circumstances will mean that the only way for an individual or couple to have a child is to use a surrogate mother in conjunction with a donated embryo or donated eggs/donated sperm. Impacts of the biological link policy. Single men and male couples may not use embryo donation or donated eggs/donated sperm because they would require a surrogate mother. Single women and partnered women (same sex or heterosexual) who are unable to gestate a pregnancy are also precluded from using embryo donation and donated eggs/donated sperm. In such people may decide to go overseas to use surrogacy in combination with an embryo created from donated eggs together with donated sperm. There have been changes in technology, science and society The reproductive technologies have expanded the opportunities for reproduction. Until comparatively recently, adoption or other arrangements, such as whāngai, were the only options to parents where one of the couple was infertile. It is now possible to use donated eggs, sperm and embryos as well as surrogacy to create a family. As with adoption, these procedures separate genes from biological and gestational relationships. However, assisted reproduction can create relationships that bring increased complexity, depending on the number of parties involved in creating and gestating an embryo, further challenging the traditional concepts of family.
adoption is intended to meet the needs of an existing child, assisted reproduction may involve deliberately creating a child who will have no genetic link to one or both parents (in the case of a couple), and who may also have no gestational link to an intending mother. The changing biological and social factors brought about by using reproductive technologies have become intertwined. New ways of family formation are bringing complexity to how kinship and parent-child relationships are defined and experienced, for the parties involved and resulting children and within the wider culture. The significance of biological relations varies according to circumstances and culture There are debates about the meaning and significance of biological relationships for how families are created and children are raised. For instance, the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) Task Force on Ethics and Law has argued: The rights and obligations connected to a genetic connection is a matter to be decided by society, usually by means of legislation. Given the absence of a fixed meaning, it is ethical to enable families to be created in this way [gamete and embryo donation]. United Kingdom research found that different weight was given to genetic relationships in adoption and embryo donation. While embryo donation parents viewed the donors as relatively unimportant to family life, the adoptive parents considered the birth parents to be important. The researcher concluded that the difference perspectives linked to the role of pregnancy and birth in the family’s creation. With parents who had used a donated embryo, the mother was able to gestate the embryo. The adoptive parents were also raising a child who was not genetically theirs, but in contrast, the mother had not gestated the pregnancy. Australian research indicated that genetics was underplayed by women using donated eggs, while women who used a surrogate mother emphasised the importance of genetic kinship. In contrast, New Zealand research found that embryo donation parents are highly sensitive to the impact of their children’s genetic history. This finding indicates that the cultural environment and regulatory requirements have an impact on the way genetic history and donors are considered. Kinship is significant in determining relationships and responsibilities, and may also bring customary and legal rights. New Zealand research relating to Māori reproduction, sexuality, maternity and adoption identified that the concept of whānau often transcends whakapapa and may include non-kin aligned through shared experience. In 2005, the New Zealand Law Commission identified that bloodlines are important in many tribal or customary situations, rather than foster or adoptive lines, in determining status or tribal connection. As a result of statutory and judicial
Provisions applying to surrogacy involving assisted reproductive procedures The proposed guidelines do not make substantial changes to the provisions applying to surrogacy, except in regard to rescinding the biological link policy. The rationale for and impacts of this change were discussed in chapter 3: Proposed changes to the biological link policy. Background to the provisions and scope of the current guidelines Neither the HART Act nor the HART defines the procedure of surrogacy. The HART Act defines a ‘surrogacy arrangement’ but refers to a legal agreement that is not enforceable, rather than the procedure itself, facilitated by a fertility services provider where a woman gestates an embryo for intending parents. made substantial changes to the surrogacy guidelines in 2013 on the eligibility criteria for intending parents (discussed in chapter 1: Introduction) and to the title of the guidelines. The current guidelines clarify in the Preamble that the criteria apply only where a surrogacy involves an assisted reproductive procedure. Surrogacies currently requiring ECART approval in accordance with the guidelines are those that involve a clinic, where the embryo transferred to the surrogate has been created from: gametes (eggs and sperm) of two intending parents gametes of one intending parent (male or female) and a donor who is not an intending parent gametes of two donors, neither of whom is an intending parent (not currently allowed under the guidelines). Surrogacies in a clinic where the surrogate uses her own eggs (traditional surrogacies) are not subject to ECART approval.