Should I Lie to You? A Review of Victoria’s Law regarding Disclosure of Surrogacy Arrangements to the Children They Produce — Is It Compliant with the Convention on the Rights of the Child?

This paper discusses the rights of children born via surrogacy arrangements (‘surrogate children’) in Victoria to be given information about the existence of the surrogate. Relevant provisions of the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008 (Vic) are analysed to show that donor-conceived children and surrogate children are treated differently when it comes to access to information regarding their heritage and birth which is based on a narrow conceptualisation of genetics and biology. By failing to take reasonable measures to ensure intended parents of surrogate children inform those children of the existence of the surrogate, it is argued that Victoria fails to comply with its obligations under arts 3, 7 and 8 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.