Reviewing Commercial Transnational Surrogacy: Lessons for Aotearoa New Zealand

Commercial transnational surrogacy provides those who experience infertility an opportunity to have a child of their ‘own genetic make-up.’ Gestational surrogacy, the focus of this research, involves a surrogate conceiving via in vitro fertilisation using the egg and sperm of intended parents or donors. This technology enables the surrogacy process to be divided, outsourced, anonymised, and transported transnationally, thereby facilitating its commercial potential. Commercial surrogacy involves intending parents paying for a surrogate and is illegal in Aotearoa New Zealand (and much of the Global North). Altruistic surrogacy involves no payment and is legal. Difficulty in finding a surrogate in Aotearoa New Zealand results in intending parents looking overseas (often to the Global South). Surrogates in the Global South are often of low socio-economic status, in need of remuneration and are vulnerable to exploitation.

This research scrutinises how a trade involving the most vulnerable people exists with no international regulation. The study aimed to identify the groups involved, their relationships, and any subsequent ethical risks. It also focused on key lessons that could inform Aotearoa’s international surrogacy regulation. A qualitative approach was undertaken, using four one-to- one interviews with Aotearoa New Zealand based subject experts and a scholarly literature review.

The groups are identified as: intending parents, surrogates, clinics, brokers/agencies, babies, egg, and sperm donors. The relationships between these groups are limited due to the little shared understanding, compartmentalisation of the surrogacy process using reproductive technology, geographical distance, and the severing of emotionality through commodifying the surrogate. The lessons for Aotearoa New Zealand are focused on easing difficulties faced by intending parents domestically, so they avoid seeking out services in countries with compromised human rights standards. Most of the interviewees in this study were reluctant to move away from altruistic domestic models, but one interviewee did suggest that surrogates should receive payment in Aotearoa New Zealand. A need to shift theoretical thinking away from pure commercial and altruistic models could enable frameworks that are better fit for purpose and prioritise the dignity and rights all groups involved.