Because Australia has been struggling with forming laws regarding Assisted Reproductive Technology, they have decided that in order to balance making the IVF process more liberal they would require all IVF patients to undergo criminal background checks. Wow! This includes cancer patients that would have to wait to start their chemotherapy or radiation treatments until the checks were completed and then have their eggs retrieved...and by then it could be too late. I would like to say at this point that this landmark legislation has not been passed in Victoria, YET! I hope that someone down under is rethinking this entire situation. Note: these are IP's that would be carrying their own children and not necessarily relying on surrogacy or even egg donation.
Men and women who have children naturally don't have to have background checks. That would be an impossible task however, the couples in the infertility world can be "regulated" and "checked". Doesn't that seem unfair? Lets look at what happens in the United States in regard to surrogacy in particular. The majority of women becoming surrogates through agencies, law offices and clinics (whether Traditional or Gestational) undergo a criminal back ground check. This is to alieviate the fear that there maybe something in the surrogates back ground that would dub them as dishonest opportunists. I have personally read dozens of background checks on surrogates and their partners and really the worst I have seen has been a DUI, bad checks and one restraining order and that was on the husband from a past relationship. Hummmm. Most of these issues were confessed before the background check. Now for Intended Parents. Surrogates want to know if the Intended Parents have had a child taken away, child abuse in their past, arrested for possession of drugs, multi DUI's and so on. Some IP's refuse to have a criminal background check just on principle. They feel that their private business is just that, private. No matter that the surrogate had to go under the very same kind of check. Lets not forget that these background checks are not mandated by US law. It is common practice by conscientious professionals.
Do I think we should no longer have background checks? Just the opposite, I think that everyone should be treated in the same way. However, background checks in the states can be done within days. They should not hold up any treatments or surrogacy matches. But again it seems that because Assisted Reproductive Technology (in this case assisted via surrogacy) is being utilized, background checks should involve all parties, Intended Parents and Surrogates. My reasons are very simple. Trust. These background checks can be used as a building block for the surrogacy relationship. When someone refuses a background check the 1st question that is asked is WHY? If you have nothing to hide then why refuse. Every shred of privacy is gone from personal medical information to the psychological thought processes so why not build the trust with one more level of disclosure? If you have nothing to hide...you have nothing to worry about.
Sharon
Posted by: Sharon LaMothe~
Founder of LaMothe Surrogacy Consulting
Owner LaMothe Services
