In Vitro Fertility Goddess

Woman Told to Become Sterile Before Being Allowed to Give Birth

Sunday 3 August, 2008

The Australian state of Victoria is facing a major legal quagmire after a woman, who wants to carry a baby for her infertile sister, must be sterilised along with her husband before she can undertake the surrogacy procedure.

Indeed, the radical step must be undertaken under Victoria's outdated surrogacy laws  whereby both the altruistic woman and her husband would have to become sterile before she would be allowed to become a surrogate mother.

The news has renewed calls for the state's decades-old fertility laws to be over overturned.

The Infertility Treatment Act states that only infertile individuals can access IVF.

The would-be mother who is infertile and in her in her early 40s slammed the laws describing them as mad.

"My sister kindly offered to be my surrogate - she already has a family - and we didn't think it was any big deal," said the woman, who did not want to be identified. She added that "our families are 100 per cent behind us and so initially we thought 'there's no reason why we can't do this".

The woman said her sister, aged in her 30s, and brother-in-law, should not have to contemplate sterilisation, given the sacrifices they were making.

Leading fertility experts agree, saying the changes to the state's fertility laws, first drafted in 1984, couldn't come soon enough as they discriminate against people who want to do surrogacy.

Meanwhile, the Victorian Law Reform Commission has recommended an overhaul of rules governing the state's assisted reproductive technology. 
*Read Robyn Riley's excellent editorial: Surrogate Laws Make No Sense