New regulations starting December 2019

New regulations made under the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008, the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Regulations 2019 (the new regulations), start on December 13, 2019, and replace the earlier regulations which will no longer operate.

The new regulations expand the costs that can be reimbursed to a surrogate and include:

• Reasonable medical expenses that are not recoverable under Medicare, health insurance or another scheme, including costs incurred prior to conception, costs associated with the pregnancy and birth and costs in relation to the child born.
• Reasonable legal, counselling, and out of pocket expenses incurred by the surrogate. Out of pocket expenses include, but are not limited to, travel, accommodation and child care costs.
• Actual lost earnings incurred by the surrogate if she takes unpaid leave for up to two months at the time of the birth, and for any other period that the surrogate is unable to work on medical grounds as a result of the surrogacy arrangement.
• Premiums, or increases to premiums for health, life or disability insurances obtained in relation to the surrogacy, that are not recoverable under insurance or another scheme.

There is a new requirement for registered assisted reproductive treatment clinics and doctors carrying out artificial insemination outside a registered clinic to provide the Authority with the email address of the donor, the woman, and her partner if any, in relation to donor treatment procedures, and artificial insemination using donor sperm.

The new regulations include minor amendments to the prescribed consent forms to enhance monitoring of the restriction on treatment procedures that may result in more than ten women having children who are genetic siblings, and to include a definition of ‘partner’ in the consent to treatment form.

Also, the new regulations require information to be kept and provided to the Authority about whether a donor ‘intends’ to donate gametes or embryos to any other registered assisted reproductive clinic or to a doctor carrying out artificial insemination outside a registered clinicl, and if so, details of that clinic or doctor.