Queensland, Australia.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/yas8nlu
New controversial surrogacy laws debated in parliament
Rosemary Odgers and Margaret Wenham
February 10, 2010 08:00pm
DEBATE is continuing into the night on controversial laws that will enable gay couples and single people to have a baby through altruistic surrogacy.
State Parliament will sit until late tonight to discuss the Bill which decriminalises altruistic surrogacy but it is now not expected to be passed until tomorrow with dozens of MPs still to speak on it.
The Opposition is opposing the Bill while Labor MPs will be given a conscience vote although this is not expected to block it.
LNP MP Rob Messenger compared surrogacy arrangements to the Stolen Generation.
"Surrogacy still involves taking away a baby from its birth mother and it is fraught with moral, ethical and physical danger," he said.
Mr Messenger said single people who were not in a committed relationship should not seek to have a child because it was nature's way of saying they were not ready to be a parent, while he also rejected gay men as appropriate parents.
"Two daddies cannot give a child a mother's love...all two men can do is provide that child with double the daddy love."
Earlier, an LNP MP questioned how a lesbian couple could raise a son during the fiery debate.
Condamine MP Ray Hopper said he could not support the proposed Government laws because they would allow gay couples to have a baby through a surrogate and went on to question how a boy could grow up with two mothers.
"Just look at the first five years of a child's life when you've got
two mothers,'' he said.
"How do you take them to a public toilet when you go on a so-called family
outing.
"They will have to go to the ladies toilet won't they.
"They (the mothers) are not going to let a little boy go to the male
toilet.
"This is the sort of situation that these members (Labor MPs) over here
haven't even thought of.
"What about a father's input into a little boy's life?
"How dare we try and break down the morals of a family by agreeing to this
legislation.''
Mr Hopper said he was "disgusted" by the proposed changes which would
reduce children to the status of pets.
"Children aren't pets...children are human beings,'' he told Parliament.
"My description of a family is a father and a mother and children...not
two mothers...not two fathers.''
Premier Anna Bligh has defended her Government's proposed surrogacy laws saying
same sex couples and singles were already becoming parents through IVF and
artificial insemination.
Ms Bligh told Parliament it would be wrong to ban them from having a child through surrogacy.
"The time for putting our heads in the sand on this issue is over," she said.
Ms Bligh told the story of a Queensland couple who wrote to her urging the decriminalisation of altruistic surrogacy after losing three premature babies in two years.
The Premier said surrogacy would be their only hope for a family along with many other Queensland couples.
Labor MP for Sandgate
Vicki Darling said it was not the job of State Parliament to deem who was a
suitable parent.
She said altruistic surrogacy was often the last resort for childless couples.
Liberal National Party deputy leader Lawrence Springborg, urged his Labor
colleagues to vote down the Government's Bill.
Mr Springborg said children had a "fundamental right'' to enter the world
with a mother and a father and most Australians believed that children "do
better in an environment where they have a mum and a dad''.
He accused the Government of trying to "contaminate'' the issue of
non-commercial surrogacy with gay parenting.
The debate in State Parliament on controversial new surrogacy laws which would
enable gay parents and sole parents to have children with the help of a
surrogate mother is expected to continue until late tonight.
ALP MPs will be given a rare conscience vote on whether to decriminalise
altruistic surrogacy in Queensland.
But the Opposition is angry the Government's bill has linked surrogacy to gay
parenting and has introduced its own Bill to limit surrogacy to married and de
facto heterosexual couples.
Christian and family groups this morning launched a last-ditched campaign to
convince Queensland MPs to vote down the Government's surrogacy laws because
they do not exclude gay parents and sole parents.
The Australian Christian Lobby has written to all Government and Independent
MPs asking them to "honour the fundamental right of children in Queensland
to at least begin life with the complementary love and care of a mother and a
father".
The letters have begun arriving in the inboxes and fax machines of the MPs this
morning, ahead of the start of the debate.
"It is wrong that through this bill, children and their inalienable right
to a father and mother will become another casualty in the relentless push by
this unrepresentative political movement to "normalise" their
relationships, which clearly are not normal as the inability to procreate
naturally proves,'' ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said in the letter.
"It is wrong to add to this offence against children, by including the
fabrication of "birth" certificates to exclude a child’s biological
parents by this legislation.
"I pray that you will decide to do what is right.''
Meanwhile, a family law specialist has warned that Queensland will
still be out of step with most other states even if controversial altruistic
surrogacy laws are passed by State Parliament today.
Stephen Page said today the government's bill continued to outlaw commercial
surrogacy and that meant desperate Queensland parents, who ventured overseas to
clinics, would be breaking the law.
Mr Page said the ACT was the only other state or territory to prohibit people
accessing commercial surrogacy offshore.
He said the Opposition's bill, which will be debated simultaneously with the
government's later today and aimed to ban singles or gay or lesbian couples
from accessing altruistic surrogacy, also made commercial surrogacy illegal.
"So if you live in Griffith Street, Tweed Heads, NSW, and you decide to go
overseas because there were only 78 children put up for adoption last year and
IVF hasn't worked, then you're not committing an offence,'' Mr Page said.
"If you're on the other side of Griffith Street in Coolangatta in
Queensland, you are.''
Mr Page said he could understand MPs wanting to discourage people attending
overseas commercial surrogacy clinics, because they didn't approve of them.
"But people are going to be doing that anyway and in the process they will
become criminals _ and these are normally ordinary, law abiding people,'' he
said.
He said the Opposition's bill, if successful, would put Queensland further out
of step with the majority of other states' and territories' laws which did
allow singles and gays and lesbians access to surrogacy.
Mr Page said surrogacy restrictions caused people great distress.
"To tell someone whose lifelong desire is to have a child they can't have
that child, well the pain you see on their face is just unbearable,'' he said.
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