New South Wales Consolidated Acts

ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY ACT 2007 - SECT 15A

15A Assessment report in relation to surrogacy arrangements

(1) An ART provider must not provide treatment to a woman that is intended to assist the woman to achieve pregnancy, and which is sought in connection with a surrogacy arrangement, unless the ART provider has been provided with an assessment report in relation to the surrogacy arrangement.

Maximum penalty: 100 penalty units in the case of a corporation or 50 penalty units in any other case.

(2) A registered medical practitioner who undertakes or supervises the provision of ART services by an ART provider must ensure that any treatment intended to assist a woman to achieve pregnancy, and which is sought in connection with a surrogacy arrangement, is not provided to the woman unless the medical practitioner is satisfied it is appropriate to do so, having regard to an assessment report.

(3) Contravention of subsection (2) is not an offence, but may constitute improper conduct by the medical practitioner for the purposes of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (NSW) .

(4) For the purposes of this section, an "assessment report" is a report by an independent counsellor about the surrogacy arrangement, that is based on interviews with the parties to the surrogacy arrangement.

(5) An assessment report must include the independent counsellor’s opinion as to whether the parties to the surrogacy arrangement understand the surrogacy arrangement, including the possible outcomes of the surrogacy arrangement, and are suitable persons to enter into or continue with the surrogacy arrangement.

(6) An assessment report must address such other matters as the regulations require the report to address.

(7) An ART provider or medical practitioner does not contravene this section unless it is proved that the ART provider or medical practitioner knew, or should reasonably have suspected, that the treatment concerned was sought in connection with a surrogacy arrangement.

(8) In this section:
"independent counsellor" means a qualified counsellor (within the meaning of the Surrogacy Act 2010 ) who is not employed or engaged by the ART provider.