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The ACT is to ban commercial surrogacy but look at regulating non-commercial surrogacy, the Attorney-General, Terry Connolly, said yesterday.

His comments come after a meeting of community services ministers in Melbourne and an appeal by a Canberra couple for a surrogate mother.

Mr Connolly said the ACT was now like NSW _ in a legal vacuum. Victoria, South Australia and Queensland have made it a criminal offence to enter into surrogacy arrangements or to publicise them, punishable by between one and three years’ jail. In those states the agreements are void.

In the ACT, surrogacy agreements are meaningless because the common law might make them unenforceable, leaving the natural mother carrying the baby _ either to raise it or adopt it. Adoption would not necessarily be to the arranging parents because private adoptions are illegal.

Mr Connolly said the United Nations had approached Australian governments pointing out that commercial surrogacy was a breach of the UN Covenant on the Rights of the Child which prohibited the sale of children. The UN was especially interested in the position in Australia because Australia was a leader in the medical technology that broadened surrogacy options.

Whereas the Government had a general philosophy that women were entitled to make their own decisions about what to do with their bodies _ as evidenced by its policies on abortion and prostitution _ surrogacy was different because it was open for greater exploitation, involved the rights of children and breached the UN covenant.

Mr Connolly said his department would speed up preparation of legislative options and look at what NSW was doing. He was keen to see what Victoria was doing with non-commercial surrogacy to cover cases such as sisters or mother-daughter surrogacy.

The Canberra couple who sought a surrogate mother last month said yesterday that their plans were still uncertain.

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