A critical appraisal of surrogacy in Malta

Abstract

Surrogacy was always considered a sensitive and controversial topic and created many discussions throughout the years in various countries. Malta was not an exception and prohibited the practice by virtue of the Embryo Protection Act. In recent years, there was a call for the submission of position papers from different groups and institutions in society as the Government wanted to receive their views if it had to amend the current law, and surrogacy was mentioned in all of them. Some were in favour of it, but some were also against it and the result was that the law remained unchanged. It is not just a concern on a national platform but also on a European Union level as well as on an international level. There is no current international legal framework and where cross-border surrogacy arrangements were being entered into by citizens of the European Union with citizens of other countries outside of the European Union, a problem was being created when they wanted to take the child born out of this arrangement back home, as some Member States refused to register the child. As the situation currently stands, Malta does not have a law regulating surrogacy other than the provision in the Embryo Protection Act and could possibly face a similar situation to other Member States. Following the research on different laws regulating surrogacy in the Member States, this thesis concludes with a legislative proposal for Malta. Apart from granting more legal rights to those who are biologically or socially infertile, a law regulating surrogacy would also be protecting the best interest of the child, as the current situation is far from ideal in the eventuality that a surrogacy case comes up.