New Zealand is a faraway country in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The majority of people perceive this country only as a fascinating touristic destination. How are things going here in the medical sphere, especially the surrogacy area? Let’s find the answers to this captivating question!
Similar to the United Kingdom, surrogacy in New Zealand is quite a challenging process. First of all, commercial surrogacy isn’t legally obtained here, meaning that surrogate moms are prohibited to receive any additional compensation apart from standard expenses coverage. On the contrary, altruistic surrogacy is accepted as a legal variant of pursuing IPs’ dream of parenthood.
As for surrogacy contracts, they are not legally binding. Therefore, an intended parent should be assisted by an experienced lawyer used to navigating various legal challenges.
Talking more about parental rights over a child, the things are perplexing, since the surrogate is claimed to be a legal mother of a newborn. The matter of facts can be changed if the intended mom and dad decide to form a special request to the court to adopt their baby born via surrogacy. Such a procedure requires a lot of law proficiency and professionalism, so once again we emphasize the importance of collaborating with a perfect lawyer, who knows how to deal with legal pitfalls.
The price for surrogacy services in New Zealand pretty much sticks to other European pricing policies. But if we analyze purely one IVF cycle with the usage of donor eggs, it will cost $5,000 without additional expenses. In the case of an IVF cycle with a surrogate, it will cost twice as less for the intended parents.
One more interesting fact about surrogacy in New Zealand is that before starting the chosen surrogacy program, intended parents should receive approval from the Ethics Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ECART) and pay an application fee. This is done to monitor particular assisted reproductive technologies in regard to surrogacy to promote health and safety for future kids.
Surrogate mothers in New Zealand should meet certain qualifications prior to the matching process with a couple willing to have children via surrogacy. First of all, they must have at least 1 child of their own. Besides, the surrogate mother or gestational carrier (if we talk about the surrogacy journey in which there’s no genetic link between the surrogate and the baby) undergoes a series of physical and psychological testing to ensure that she is fit for a safe and healthy pregnancy.
In some cases, the open advertising of a surrogate is prohibited, thus it may be difficult to find one in New Zealand. Still, there’s an option to experience surrogacy with your close friend or even a relative if they are not against becoming a surrogate mother for you.
Altruistic surrogacy in New Zealand opens its doors for gay couples as equally as for heterosexual IPs. However, a growing number of LGBT intended parents are opting for international surrogacy in more friendly countries with easier law frameworks.
It’s true, that legal restrictions in New Zealand make things complicated concerning the surrogacy path not only for gay IPs but also for the surrogate moms themselves, who weren’t asking for forced parental rights over the newborn. Nevertheless, 21st century might bring meaningful changes in New Zealand’s legal attitude towards surrogacy.
Should you have an urge to launch your own surrogacy journey, please refer to World Center of Baby and our experts will surely select for you the most appropriate program in the most suitable country.
