Vector Volume 11 Issue 2 - 2017

as well as facilitating educated discussion about the
possibilities of chromosomal abnormalities or multifetal
gestation, would also mitigate conflict. Antenatal and
postnatal support, including mental health checks, could
also be provided through this system.
The exclusion of profiting intermediaries increases the
likelihood that the interests of all parties would be equally
considered, rather than sacrificing the surrogate’s health
and experience in favour of maximising profits. Moreover,
any surrogacy arrangements would still be constrained
by Australia’s existing common law and family law. This
ensures that the surrogate maintains all the decisionmaking
powers throughout the pregnancy, including her
rights to access termination of pregnancy and to bodily
autonomy.
In terms of the appropriate compensation, it seems
prudent to set both a minimum and a maximum limit.
Pregnancy is unavoidably risky for a woman, and gestating
a growing fetus is no easy task. Why should it not, like
many other jobs, receive recompense proportionate to
the task? Moreover, pregnancy is intrinsically care-based
‘women’s work’, which is still insidiously undervalued
even in modern times. Conversely, to titrate the price of
surrogacy to the intensity of a commissioning couple’s
desire for a child is hardly ethical. The US can shed light
on what prices may look like in an uncapped surrogacy
market; the estimated reimbursement for surrogates
advertised by leading US agency Circle Surrogacy, not
including medical or otherwise associated expenses,
is US$30,000.[18] Most couples experiencing infertility
would struggle to pay this price, which does not include
medical and legal costs. The aim of setting both minimum
and maximum limits on a surrogate’s compensation is to
strike a balance between the interests of the surrogate
and the commissioning parents - or more simply put,
ensuring fair pay for fair work.
Furthermore, a centralised agency would also offer
benefits for children born from surrogacy arrangements.
There would exist a database through which children
could later in life track down their surrogates should
they choose to, just as adopted children can request
information regarding their birth origins after turning 18.
The laws regarding surrogacy should be standardised
across all Australian states and territories. At present, the
laws are fractured and discordant, diverging on points
including whether same-sex couples should be eligible
to be intended parents, the legality of advertisement for
surrogacy, as well as that of seeking overseas surrogates.
The murky legalities of surrogacy make it confusing for
surrogates without deterring commissioning parents; if
they are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for
surrogacy, they would probably be happy to travel to
states with more favourable laws.[6]
Challenges of decriminalisation of commercial
surrogacy
One might argue that by decriminalising commercial
surrogacy in Australia, we simply shift the burden of
exploitation from overseas to our own shores. The
concern is that commercial surrogates will be uneducated
and disempowered, and have little informed choice in
the matter. If we assume that the demographic of paid
surrogates in Australia would resemble that of the US,
then this concern does not appear to be relevant.[17, 19]
Small studies of commercial surrogates in the US have
suggested the while surrogates do tend to have lower
incomes and less education than commissioning parents,
they are generally not of a vulnerable population. In one
study, most had gone to college, or at least finished high
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