Surrogacy

Surrogacy treatment involves having another woman carry a child to term on behalf of a family. This treatment might be recommended for a woman who has an abnormality of her uterus or no uterus.

There is publicly-funded treatment available for some couples. To be eligible for public treatment there must be a medical reason for surrogacy.

All surrogacy treatments require ethics committee approval before treatment can commence.

Clinic assisted surrogacy in New Zealand is legal, and regulated, but surrogacy arrangements
are not legally binding. This means that the surrogate (and her partner) will be the legal
parent(s) of a resulting child until the final formal adoption process has been completed and
the Intended Parent(s) then become the legal parent(s).

Fertility Plus adheres to the Surrogacy Guidelines established by ACART
(www.acart.health.govt.nz) and all clinic assisted surrogacies require case by case approval
from ECART (www.ecart.health.govt.nz). Paramount in any surrogacy arrangement is the
interests and well-being of the surrogate and any potential child. Clinics must report
outcomes and any issues arising from surrogacy, to ECART. From the time you commence
an ECART surrogacy application until treatment can begin (if approval is granted), is usually
around 6-8 months. There is a fee for the ECART application which is not covered by public
funding. Legal fees are in addition.

Fertility Plus is not allowed to match Intended Parents with a potential surrogate. Ideally a
surrogate is someone you know directly from your network of family and friends, or
someone you are introduced to by someone you know e.g. a sister of a work colleague.
Sometimes it is not possible to find someone you know to assist. It can then be helpful to
get in touch with others who are involved in surrogacy through forums such as the Fertility
New Zealand forum www.fertilitynz.org.nz. Fertility New Zealand also offers information
and support through the Donor Conception and Surrogacy Network (DCSN).

As you will see from the Fertility Plus surrogacy flowchart and ECART application costs, an
application involves medical, counselling, and legal appointments for all parties so that you
can be well informed of the process and any risks. Once appointments have been
completed, summaries are written up and the application collated by the counsellors and
sent to ECART. ECART meet approximately 5-6 times per year and will provide a decision on
the surrogacy proposal around 3 weeks after the meeting.

At the same time as you are working through the ECART process, we will provide you with
details for contacting the Social Worker at Oranga Tamariki (Ministry for Children). The
Social Worker there will guide you through the adoption assessment which is required.
Under New Zealand law, all Intended Parents need to make a formal application for
adoption of a resulting child. For the Intended Parents, the lawyer you see for the ECART
application legal consultation will also be the lawyer you work with once a baby is born and
the adoption process is activated.

For more information at any stage, you are welcome to contact the Fertility Plus counsellors
on (09) 630 9810 ext: 6 or the Fertility Plus Surrogacy Nurse Coordinator on (09) 630 9810
ext. 3.

Fee Structure for Surrogacy

The application fee is inclusive of:
1) Counsellors services
a) Five Counselling sessions

• Two sessions for Intending Mother (IM) and Intending Partner (IP)
• Two sessions for Birth Mother (BM) and Birth Partner (BP)
• One joint counselling session with all parties

Any further sessions required for the application process will be at an additional cost
of the current counselling rate. Please ask us for a specific quote if an egg donor is
also involved.
b) Three Counselling reports as required for the ECART application and based on the
counselling sessions as above.
c) Coordination of the entire application including liaison with Fertility Plus clinic staff,
other health professionals as required, lawyers involved, and ECART Secretariat.

2) Medical specialist services
a) One appointment with Medical specialist for IM and IP
One appointment with Medical specialist for BM and BP
b) Medical specialist’s reports for ECART application and liaison with other medical
specialists as required.

Additional appointments (if required) will be billed at the medical review consultation price.
We will invoice you for the ECART application in full once the required medical and
counselling appointments have commenced. If an application does not proceed to be
submitted to ECART, we will discuss with you if any partial refund is applicable.
Unfortunately there is no public funding to cover the cost for ECART applications therefore
all applications need to be privately funded by the Intended Parents. The cost of
treatment/management fee for surrogacy needs to be calculated separately to the ECART
application fee. If Intended Parents have some public funding remaining, this can be used
for treatment, otherwise private treatment charges apply. Please refer to the current
Fertility PLUS Fee Schedule for up-to-date ECART applications costs and treatment costs.

Please note that legal consultations are also a requirement of the ECART process. One
legal appointment is required for the IM and IP and a separate session for the BM and BP.
The IM and IP cover the costs of these legal consultations and we usually advise to budget
approximately $3000 in total. Lawyers invoice you directly for the legal sessions and their
subsequent legal reports. Please note that Intended Parents also need to budget for legal
fees for the adoption process after the birth of the child – approximately $7000-$10 000.

Legal Advice for Surrogacy

It is a requirement of the Ethics Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ECART)
that the intended mother and father, and the birth mother and partner, seek legal advice.
The intended parents and surrogate must have separate lawyers. We recommend you use
one of the lawyers listed below, as they have experience with surrogacy and the
requirements of the ECART legal reports. Please don’t book your legal consultations until
after your first appointment with the Fertility Plus counsellor.
Always check lawyer’s fees when making appointments as charges can vary considerably.
Legal fees are not included in the Fertility Plus ECART Surrogacy application fee. The
intended parents usually pay for the legal consultation for themselves as well as the
consultation for the surrogate.

Lawyers