Research On Several Legal Issues Of International Surrogacy Arrangements

Since Since 20 th Century,due to the explosive increase of environmental pollution and social pressure,the fast rhythm of people's life,as well as human conditions and other factors,infertility couples have increased significantly.At the same time,thanks to the social progress,people`s multiple values give rise to various methods of marriage and life,such as the same-sex,non-marriage person,which made some people`s dream of birth cannot come true.Under this background,the Assisted Reproductive Technology(ART)made the infertile people seeing the bright,such as surrogacy and in-vitro fertilization(IVF).In 1980 s,the close contact between the states based on globalization and the different attitudes of the states on the surrogacy made the International Surrogacy Arrangements(ISAs)come into being.The ISAs bring not only a lot of benefits,but also many problems:whether the surrogacy and surrogacy arrangements should be legalization or not,how to ascertain the nationality and legal parentage of the child(ren)of ISAs and so on.This paper will discuss these issues in six parts.In the first part,we focus on the background and practical significance of research of ISAs,as well as the main reasons for the emergence of ISAs in China in recent years.The rapid development of ISAs in recent years brings a range of social,legal and many other issues to many countries.Due to a large group of infertility patients and a negative attitude to surrogate activities on policy and legislation,There have been a number of international surrogacy population in China,which also brings many issues.The study of ISAs will help to solve these problems as soon as possible.At the second part of the paper,we talk about the surrogate and ISAs` meaning,present situation and contributing factors.This paper argues that surrogate has two meanings.First,it means an assisted reproductive technology.The second mean is that the surrogate mother gives birth to a baby with the help of assisted reproductive technology,and give the baby to the intending parents.In ISAs,the surrogate mother and intending parents have different nationality.In recent years,the ISAs have become a "global phenomenon".The main reasons for this are the development of medical technology and information science,the different attitude to surrogate activities on policy and legislation in many states,the globalization of the world and so on.In the third part,the validity of agreements of ISAs is discussed.There are positive points and negative points on this issue at present.Both of them explain their opinions in terms of the guarantee of reproductive rights,the public order and morals,the health right and so on.Because of the influence of these opinions,it is different that the states` legislation attitude on the validity of agreements of ISAs.Some states hold the positive attitude like Britain and Israel,but some of them hold the negative attitude,such as Germany and France.There also have some states which have the attitude both positive and negative.At the fourth part,it is illustrated that how to ascertain the legal parentage of the children of ISAs.There are four main theories.In the first theory,the surrogate mother is considered as the children`s mother who come into the world by ISAs,and Germany and France stand for this theory.The people who support second theory hold the point that the genetic parents are children`s legal parents who come into the world by ISAs.The states who hold this point are mainland China and Taiwan.In the third theory,the supporter think that agreements of ISAs should be observed between surrogate mother and intending parents.The states who hold this point are Britain and Israel.At the last theory,the supporter hold the point that children`s interest is the most important thing which should be considered when people ascertain the legal parentage of the children of ISAs.The Baby Cotton case stands for this point.How to ascertain the nationality of these children is discussed in the fifth part.In this part,we focus on the inter-regional or international treaties on the protection of surrogate children`s rights to have a nationality,national laws on nationality of the surrogate children as well as the relevant issues between the children`s nationality and legal parentage.At the last part of the paper,we give some advice to deal with the problems of ISAs.There are many issues in the process dealing with the problem the ISAs have brought.To solve these issues,first of all,the states should cooperate each other to make the private international law rules relating to the ISAs and set a framework for co-operation.China should also take measures to make laws on ISAs as soon as possible.At the same time,China should set up a special response agency to deal with the ISAs issues and cooperate with other countries more closely.Moreover,China can take an active part in the formulation of international surrogacy issues cooperation framework.In my opinion,the ISA is a complex international issue and the agreement of ISAs is a new kind of legal act in the civil law.When people ascertain the legal parentage of the children of ISAs,children`s interest is the most important thing which should be considered and their right to have a nationality should be effectively protected.