Surrogacy and Adoption

It is important to note the major differences between the institution of adoption and surrogacy. Firstly, adoption is a child-centred social institution. Adoption exists to give children the mother and father they need. It does not exist to give adults the children they want. Adoption exists to help disadvantaged children; however, this is not the purpose of surrogacy. According to the Media Release, Fair and Responsible Surrogacy Reform, “The [former Tasmanian] Attorney-General, David Bartlett, today tabled legislation to allow altruistic surrogacy, and help many Tasmanians realise their dream of starting their own family.”[i] This outlines that the legislation focuses primarily on adults and does not adequately consider the needs of children. Mr Bartlett continues,” The most crucial thing a young child can have is loving, devoted parents – regardless of whether that’s a man and woman, unmarried people or same-sex couples”[ii]. This is in fact not true, regardless of how loving a homosexual couple or a single man or woman are, children will be lacking the other parent in their lives.


The evidence that surrogacy is not in the best interests of children comes in the first detailed study on the similar issue of donor insemination, entitled My Daddy's name is donor:
 
[Y]oung adults conceived through sperm donation are hurting more, are more confused, and feel more isolated from their families. They fare worse than their peers raised by biological parents on important outcomes such as depression, delinquency and substance abuse. Nearly two-thirds [65%] agree, “My sperm donor is half of who I am.”
Young adults conceived through sperm donation (or “donor offspring”) experience profound struggles with their origins and identities. [iii]
 
Children born as a result of donor insemination, similar to the children born as a result of a surrogacy arrangement, suffer from the lack of knowledge of their real parents, a lack of identity, a lack of belonging and a lack of their origin. “ More than half (53 percent) agree, “I have worried that if I try to get more information about or have a relationship with my sperm donor, my mother and/or the father who raised me would feel angry or hurt.””[iv]
 
The study also shows that children long to know their real parents:
Nearly half of donor offspring (48 percent) compared to about a fifth of adopted adults (19 percent) agree, “When I see friends with their biological fathers and mothers, it makes me feel sad.” Similarly, more than half of donor offspring (53 percent, compared to 29 percent of the adopted adults) agree, “It hurts when I hear other people talk about their genealogical background.”[v]
 
Overall, adoption exists primarily to assist disadvantaged children, whose birth parents have died or are incapable of providing them with the necessary care they deserve. Secondarily, adoption can alleviate the pain of infertile couples of not having biological children, while keeping the rights of children to have the care of a mother and a father and keeping open the option of knowing and having a relationship with their biological parent(s).

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[i] Fair and Responsible Surrogacy Reform Media Release
David Bartlett MP, Attorney-General, Tuesday 15 March 2011
http://www.media.tas.gov.au/print.php?id=31824
[ii] Id.
[iii] Marquadt, E, et al., My daddy’s name is donor: a new study of young adults conceived through sperm donation, Institute for American Values, 2010, p 5-6;
http://www.scribd.com/doc/32495612/My-Daddy-s-Name-is-Donor
[iv] Ibid, p 7.
[v] Id.