Surrogacy laws in Ireland: Is surrogacy legal in Ireland?

In Ireland, there are no laws pertaining to surrogacy at the moment. Neither permission nor prohibition is required. Irish law prohibits commercial surrogacy process, in which the surrogate mother is compensated, because of moral concerns about human trafficking.

Ireland does allow charitable surrogacy, though. In this situation, a close friend who wants to support the couple’s attempt at conception is acting as the surrogate mother. An unofficial agreement may provide compensation to the surrogate mother to cover some justifiable expenses.

Although there may be a genetic connection between the commissioning parents and the child, it’s important to understand that this does not necessarily mean that they are the child’s legal parents under Irish law. According to Irish law, there is a hurdle that needs to be cleared before the commissioning parents can be granted parental rights.

Even if she uses her own eggs and can demonstrate a genetic relationship to the child, it does not grant the commissioning woman any legal parental rights in Ireland. This assumption was amply supported in the case of MR v. An t-rd-Chláraitheoir [2014] 3 IR 533. The only way the intended mother can legally adopt the child is through adoption.

Irish law recognizes the surrogate mother’s partner as the legitimate father of the child. If the surrogate mother is not married and the commissioning father is genetically related to the child, he must file the following legal petitions with the Irish Courts to establish parental rights:

• Declaration of parentage—the court will require DNA proof to substantiate this.
• In Ireland, the surrogate mother is given guardianship by default, so she has been named as a joint guardian.
• Order from the court—the court has the power to ignore the surrogate mother’s consent upon request.