Students call for surrogacy to be regulated

Allowing couples to make surrogacy arrangements locally would help reduce the exploitation of women, according to the European Law Students’ Association – Elsa Malta. In a policy paper titled ‘Onto Surrogacy Regulation’, which was presented to Civil Rights Minister Helena Dalli today, the students call for surrogacy to be regulated to prevent couples from bypassing national legislation. They analysed European Court of Human Rights cases, also identifying some of the problems it faced when dealing with cases on surrogacy agreements. Principles and guidelines issued by the court should help pave the way for the implementation of principals and guidelines, they said. “Other aspects of reproductive rights has been discussed in great detail, but not enough light has been shed on other specific aspects, that of which include surrogacy,” the law students said. The rights and duties of the surrogate mother would need to be clearly stipulated, the students insisted, highlighting cases in other countries, mainly poorer, under-developed ones, where women would enter into a surrogacy agreement for very low prices. “We want to enthuse policymakers into considering the entire spectrum when...