A Canberra couple seeking a child have plenty of offers of surrogate mothers, but have drawn a blank from in-vitro fertilisation clinics in the ACT and Melbourne. The husband says he is thinking about doing it the natural way with a surrogate and his wife would agree if that were the only way to get a child.
The plight of Peter and Wendy Voelker, of Gordon, was first made public in The Canberra Times on Monday.
Mrs Voelker is on medication to control epilepsy and has had three miscarriages. The couple sought adoption, but were told there was a 10-year waiting list.
They are seeking a surrogate mother and are prepared to pay up to $100 a week and medical expenses. After their case was made public, Mr Voelker said they had been contacted by up to a dozen volunteers. Some were mainly interested in the money, others wanted the experience of pregnancy again without having to bring up a child and others just wanted to help. were just interested in helping.
Mr Voelker said he had contacted the ACT IVF clinic at John James Hospital, but it had refused to take part. The same happened with the clinic at Monash University in Melbourne. He would now try Adelaide. He said the artificial-insemination clinics would inseminate only a wife, not a surrogate.
Mr Voelker has done a TAFE course in child care and has been a paid child-carer for 10 years. He now drives a taxi and truck for a living. He said he had obtained legal advice that surrogacy was legal in the ACT.
A spokesperson for the ACT Attorney-General’s Department confirmed that surrogacy was not illegal in the ACT, provided there were no advertisements seeking ultimate adoption of the child. But this was subject to the application of 19th century anti-slavery laws, but there application was uncertain.
Entering into surrogacy arrangements is a crime punishable by two years’ jail in Victoria, as is advertising it.
ACT authorities have prepared a draft Bill to go before the ACT House of Assembly in August prohibiting surrogacy along the lines of Victorian law. Sources within the ACT administration made it fairly plain they would use whatever law possible to discourage surrogacy in the ACT pending the ACT law being enacted, but MLAs have not made their position clear and there is no certainty that the Bill will be approved in the Assembly.
Several US states also prohibit surrogacy, but others have laws enforcing surrogacy agreements, provided counselling and other requirements are met, such as the surrogate mother being over-21 and already having had a child.
In California last month the Supreme Court awarded custody to a receiving couple denying a surrogate who had borne a child for $10,000.