Julie Bishop backs consulate over surrogacy visa

Julie Bishop has defended the conduct of Delhi-based consular staff and DFAT in a surrogacy case.

Julie Bishop has defended the conduct of Delhi-based consular staff and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in the case of Australian parents who abandoned a twin baby son, born to an Indian surrogate mother, because they wanted a daughter.

The Foreign Minister, in India on a three-day visit, said “consular staff acted professionally and did what they could in very difficult circumstances. They were asked to provide a visa on the basis of an application and they carried out whatever inquiries they could as far as I understand.”

“They went further and made inquiries of the Indian authorities and satisfied themselves that a valid adoption had taken place of the child,” adding any question of changing Australian surrogacy laws to prevent a repeat of such an incident was the responsibility of the Attorney-General.

The issue has once again thrown an uncomfortable spotlight on India’s still under-regulated $500 million-a-year surrogacy industry, as well as an apparent black market for so-called “extra babies” born to surrogate mothers implanted with multiple eggs to improve clients’ chances of fertilisation.

The Australian couple, who already had a boy, engaged the services of an Indian surrogacy agency in early 2012 seeking a second child.

But documents released under Freedom of Information reveal the husband approached Immigration Department staff in December 2012 after the surrogate mother gave birth to twins, explaining the couple wanted to take only the girl back home because “they could not afford to support both children”. 

The documents, obtained by the ABC, reveal New Delhi consular staff warned the NSW couple the infant boy could end up stateless because Indian law doesn’t recognise surrogate children as citizens. International surrogacy is outlawed in NSW.

Cables between New Delhi and Canberra also show Delhi staff appealed for “urgent” advice, noting: “Our ability to ensure the welfare of a non-Australian child in a foreign jurisdiction is limited.” Days later Delhi staff were advised to go ahead and issue a visa for the baby girl.

According to the documents, the Australian man misled consular staff by claiming the boy would be adopted by friends in India, when the adoptive parents were friends of friends.

While a DFAT memo from last August refers to a local adoption order for the abandoned child, it is not clear whether any Australian government official has seen these documents.

Family Court Chief Justice Diana Bryant has said consular staff told her they were concerned the baby boy may have been sold.

In a recent documentary for US network HBO on Indian surrogacy, Outsourcing Embryos, an undercover journalist filmed a meeting with surrogacy agents who claimed they could get her a caucasian baby in two to three months, and confirmed the child would come from a pool of “extra” babies born from multiple implantations.

Journalist Gianna Toboni told New York Magazine last month: “Doctors have been known to insert more than one or two embryos to increase the chances that the woman will get pregnant without losing time or money. The commissioning couple may only want one baby, so sometimes, when more than one baby is born, the couple isn’t told, even though it’s their genetic offspring.”