Bottlenecks in surrogate motherhood must be eliminated
The Cabinet intends to take a number of measures to eliminate bottlenecks in Dutch legislation regarding surrogate motherhood. One of the proposed measures is to allow surrogate motherhood abroad only if at least one of the commissioning parents is genetically related to the child, and if the other parent is known. The Council of Ministers has approved the proposal put forward by Mr Teeven, the State Secretary of Security and Justice, to send a letter on this matter to the Lower House.
On an international level, the laws on surrogate motherhood vary substantially. Not all of that legislation is deemed acceptable in the Netherlands. This may cause problems when commissioning parents apply for a Dutch passport for the child. Therefore, one of the conditions for surrogate motherhood as proposed by the Cabinet is that at least one of the commissioning parents is genetically related to the child. If neither one of the commissioning parents is genetically related to the child concerned, adoption is considered a more logical choice.
Additionally, the Cabinet wants matters of international surrogate motherhood to be in keeping with Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This article provides that, as far as possible, every child has the right to know his or her parents. This rule is applicable in the Netherlands and should equally apply in international situations where a child comes to the Netherlands after being born abroad from a surrogate mother. This means that in the event of an egg or sperm donation, the donor must be known.
As the definition of pecuniary gain is difficult to define in an international perspective, it is very difficult to enforce the requirement of the not-for-profit basis in daily practice. Consequently, the Cabinet has made a choice not to assess the reimbursement of expenses received by a foreign surrogate and the medical expenses charged by the organisations, when testing public order issues regarding surrogate motherhood. In this respect, it is also taken into consideration that it is not prohibited under Dutch law for a surrogate mother to accept money or for commissioning parents to pay the surrogate.
Another proposal is to provide better information on having a baby by means of surrogate motherhood. In consultation with the Public Prosecution Office, it will also be decided if it is possible to tighten the enforcement policy rules on surrogate motherhood, and if such measure is desirable.