A bill on surrogacy and assisted human reproduction is starting committee stage in the Dáil today (24 January).

This process will include the proposal by Government of a number of committee-stage amendments (CSAs) to the text of the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022, which was approved last December.

The bill, as initiated, provided for domestic altruistic surrogacy, but did not contain provisions to regulate surrogacy arrangements made in other jurisdictions.

The legislation will also now address retrospective surrogacy arrangements, with the insertion of a range of new sections.

‘Important milestone’

This bill will, for the first time, encompass regulation on a wide range of practices, such as:

• Gamete and embryo donation for assisted human reproduction (AHR) and research,
• Domestic altruistic surrogacy,
• Pre-implantation genetic testing of embryos,
• Posthumous assisted human reproduction, andEmbryo and stem cell research.

The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said that, while there was still “a way to go” before the bill was enacted, today marked “an important milestone” for children and their parents who had campaigned for this legislation.

“I expect it will take a number of meetings of the Select Committee on Health to consider, given the size and complexity of the newly expanded bill, which now takes account of international surrogacy arrangements,” he stated.

The Department of Health stressed that the acceptance, or not, of amendments was a matter for the Oireachtas.