Oireachtas committee may study surrogacy

The Oireachtas Committee on Health may consider the issue of surrogacy following reports that a gay Irish male couple became the parents of triplets through a surrogacy agency in California.

According to a newspaper report yesterday, one of the two men fathered the children with a surrogate mother through in-vitro fertilisation. The Sunday World report said the two businessmen arrived back in Dublin a week ago with the six-week-old triplets, two boys and a girl.

Fine Gael's health spokesman, Mr Gay Mitchell, questioned "the ethics of people being able to acquire children" like an investment.

Mr Mitchell said there needed to be a review of the whole area "and of who can acquire children in this way". He believed the couple being homosexual was a complication. However, it was possible for a gay couple to bring up a child very well in the same way that it was possible for a heterosexual couple to be very bad parents, he said.

"There needs to be a clear set of ethics and this is a matter that the Oireachtas health committee can look at with the Department of Health," he added.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said there was no Irish legislation governing surrogacy and it was a relatively new phenomenon in Ireland. She added that there could be other instances where Irish couples have children through surrogacy but they have not come to public attention. A spokesman for the Department of Justice said the issue was a matter for the Department of Health.