Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, CHIP president, invited to speak to Committee on Surrogacy
The Danish Committee on Surrogacy was established to consider and make recommendations on measures including legislation to address issues arising from surrogacy. Madame de Boer-Buquicchio was invited to share her views with Committee members in April given her vast experience on children’s rights in surrogacy including as the former UN SR on sale and sexual exploitation. She used this opportunity to explain the different situations where sale of children may occur and is prohibited under the CRC and its OPSC, as well as where it does not occur. Given the Committee’s interest in the link between commercial surrogacy and intercountry adoption – she noted that while both are different – the same risks of making the child the object of sale may occur in both situations. This can occur when the surrogate mother and birth mother both provide their consent to transfer legal parentage on the basis of payment. She also noted that the presence of intermediaries is a significant factor in this regard, who are largely unregulated including in countries where surrogacy is prohibited. Consequently, she stressed the importance of all States having robust regulation that does not allow for the transfer of the child, for any remuneration or any other consideration, which would lead to the sale of the child including his or her identity. She noted that in any regulation of surrogacy, all children’s rights should be equally protected, where for example certainty in legal parentage should not trump all other children’s rights including the right to not be sold and have their identity preserved as noted in UNICEF/CHIP briefing note on this topic.
