Should Surrogate Pregnancy Arrangements be Enforceable in Aotearoa New Zealand?

Abstract

Aotearoa New Zealand has no unified regulatory system governing the ethical and legal issues that arise with surrogate pregnancy arrangements. Accordingly, legal scholars and moral philosophers have recently called for revision to parentage and payment around surrogacy. Several academics have additionally suggested making surrogate pregnancy arrangements enforceable under New Zealand law. This discussion combines empirical research with key informants and experts working in the field of assisted reproduction with interview data from surrogate mothers and ovarian egg donors about their experiences of donating reproductive materials and services. The aim of the article is to expand the conceptual toolkit of assisted human reproduction to better understand the donative acts of women who share their reproductive materials and services, and to critically examine calls to introduce a regulatory model that makes surrogacy enforceable in light of concerns about the relational complexities of these arrangements.