Navigating Structural Tensions: Australian Surrogacy Facilitators’ Understanding on Children’s Rights in Cross-Border Surrogacy

TL;DR

This study explores how Australian surrogacy facilitators handle children's rights in international surrogacy arrangements, highlighting structural challenges and the need for better regulations.

Contribution

The study provides new insights into the tensions between children's rights and surrogacy practices, offering implications for legal and policy reforms.

Findings

Facilitators face structural barriers like legal ambiguities and commodification of children in surrogacy contracts.

There is a tension between recognizing children as rights holders and the practical demands of surrogacy arrangements.

The study emphasizes the need for stronger regulatory frameworks to protect children's rights in cross-border surrogacy.

Abstract

Within cross-border surrogacy, particularly in consumer countries, the protection of children’s human rights presents complex and significant challenges. This study examines how Australian surrogacy facilitators perceive and navigate the rights of children born through such arrangements. Despite striving to adopt child-centred practices, facilitators face structural barriers, including conflicting interests between intended parents and children, the commodification of children in surrogacy contracts, and legal ambiguities around parental relationships. These challenges create a persistent tension between the universal recognition of children as independent rights holders and the practical demands of facilitating surrogacy arrangements. The findings highlight the need for robust regulatory frameworks and clearer accountability mechanisms to ensure children’s rights are upheld. This study advances the scholarship on surrogacy and human rights and informs the ongoing review of Australian surrogacy laws, emphasizing the need for stronger protections for children in international surrogacy arrangements.