Former Miss World Rosanna Davison has said she was dreading the day she had to have a conversation with her daughter Sophia about her surrogacy.
The top model welcomed the report of the joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy, which includes 32 recommendations, one of which is that the committee is calling for both parents of a child born through an international surrogacy agreement to be legally recognised as parents.
It is also calling for the establishment of a National Surrogacy Register for children to be able to access their own information when they reach 12 years of age.
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Rosanna, whose daughter Sophia was born through surrogacy in 2019, described the day as “historic and emotional”.
Speaking on Newstalk’s Pat Kenny Show, Rosanna said: “This is a huge historic, emotional and incredibly exciting day for my family and hundreds of families across Ireland with children born through surrogacy and like many of them, we dreamt of having a baby – it didn’t work out the traditional way so we went down the surrogacy route.
“You don’t choose to do surrogacy lightly either, but we were successful, and I suppose we would deal with the legal challenges along the way as they happened.
“But with this set of recommendations, it paves the way for other couples to be able to pursue surrogacy and not face the challenges that we faced so it is hue, it is historic.
“I’m so grateful to the Government, to the Joint Oireachtas committee and to everybody involved and of course Irish families through surrogacy have driven this campaign. It’s been years of hard work, hard campaigning, people never giving up hope.”
Rosanna, who went on to welcome twin boys Hugo and Oscar in 2020 naturally, admitted she was dreading the day when she would have to tell Sophia about how she was born via surrogacy but was still not seen as having the same equal rights as her twin brothers through the eyes of the law.
The 38-year-old said her husband Wes became Sophia’s legally recognised parent, but Rosanna wanted to wait until the outcome of the surrogacy bill. The Irish State currently does not recognise Rosanna’s biological daughter as her daughter.
“My husband Wes was able to become her legally recognised parent. He got his parental order in the courts and then after that, I could have applied to be her legal guardian when she turned two. I didn't. I held up hoping that we would have some positive news eventually from this.
“But then my legal rights to be her guardian would have been up by the time she turned 18 and again with it, it brought so many different complications. If something had happened to my husband, if our relationship had broken down, I would have no legal right over Sophia as her mother, her parent, her protector.
“I have two twin boys, Hugo and Oscar, born naturally in 2020 and I was dreading the day that I would have to have the conversation with Sophia to explain to her that not only did I not carry her, but she is not seen as equal to them in the eyes of the laws despite being siblings, despite them all being my biological children.
“So I feel now I can explain everything to her when she is older and when the time is right but I won’t have to have that conversation. I won’t have to know that she is growing up feeling unequal to her brothers.”
The committee is also calling for all international surrogates to be financially and legally protected.
Rosanna added: “It’s about our children, it is about protecting Irish citizens who are vulnerable and left out and that includes my own biological daughter Sophia, who was born in 2019 through surrogacy.
“I’m incredibly emotional today. It’s just everything as campaigners that we wanted to hear today. There are so many different reasons why we are celebrating today and why it is so important for Irish children and Irish families and also for the women and the men in the future who will go down the surrogacy route.”
Elsewhere, Dancing With The Stars judge Arthur Gourounlian – who is expecting his first baby in September with husband Brian Dowling - turned out at the Dail to support the Stand With Our Families protest.
Airing his frustrations over Ireland’s surrogacy laws, Arthur said: “I think it is time for Irish laws, the legislation for surrogacy to take place in Ireland.
“Seriously I can’t believe there are so many children in Ireland that are denied the rights to their family, legally recognised. That is exactly what is going to happen to Brian and I. One of us is going to have to wait two years to apply for guardianship and go through all the papers.
“I mean why? Why is it that someone is giving you birth that they are automatically the mother. Why is someone taking away that joy that the parents should have?
“Just imagine you have a kid and you have no right if you go to hospital. You can’t go to hospital with your kid, only one parent can go but then the person who gave birth, that person can go to the hospital, even though that person is a surrogate.
“I think now more than ever these laws should take place and finally just move forward,” he added.
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