ECART - Oranga Tamariki
At the time of writing, having a child through surrogacy requires intending parents to adopt the child in New Zealand. Whether the surrogacy is domestic or international you need to adopt the child in NZ. You need to work with Oranga Tamariki during ECART process to complete a mini* (not so mini, more on this later) assessment in case of surrogacy. This is to ensure that you can be assessed and approved as adoptive parents to go through legal adoption process that is required after birth.
Your ECART coordinator from your clinic will help you get in touch with Oranga Tamariki. We had contact details from when we completed embryo creation at Fertility Plus and we sent them an email once we got through medical assessment with Fertility Associates to kick it off.
As intending parents, we submit an application to the Adoption Services at Oranga Tamariki. With current legal framework in New Zealand there is no process for surrogacy arrangements regardless of your genetic link (if any) and you are treated as adoptive parents.
Traditional surrogacy (TS): This is where the surrogate uses her own eggs. The sperm may be from intended parents or donor sperm. Creation of embryo can take many paths including IVF, IUI, or home insemination.
Gestational surrogacy (GS): This is where the surrogate carryes the baby that does not contain any of her genetic material. Egg and sperm can be from intended parents and one or both could be donated material. IVF is necessary for GS.
When we entered the process it seemed simple enough. But the application process is long and very involved so be prepared for this. You will be assigned a social worker and receive a pack containing forms and checklist. It includes application for assessment form, authorisation forms, NZ Police check request and consent forms, overseas police check (if applicable) forms, medical report, and references.
The application form has section to provide 2 referees. One needs to be a relative and another person not related to your family/whanau. These referees will be interviewed by the social worker on your household, character, strength, relationships with children and they will also need to provide a written reference for you. The social worker will also reach out to the surrogate for interview.
Medical report for Oranga Tamariki will be from your GP to get family and individual health history, not from your fertility clinic unless required. You share the medical report form with your GP and during an appointment with your GP to complete it. Your GP can then send the completed medical report form to the social worker for your application at Oranga Tamariki.
Once we submitted all required documents and all background check process including police checks are completed we started the assessment process with the social worker. As we were still in lockdown restrictions all of our meetings were virtual including identity verification.
The assessment took about 5 hours with the social worker for us over a few days with additional follow up emails and phone calls as required. The assessment felt like a mix of interview and counselling. There was a preliminary home safety assessment conducted virtually as well.
The assessment is very deep and personal. You might learn something new about yourself and your partner. You need to talk through everything from your own childhood, how you were raised, praised, disciplined, and values. You talk through your family members and relationships with each of them. You talk through your relationship, how you met, duration and strength of the relationship. Your health and how it could impact care for the child, if applicable. You also talk about your education, your employment, your home environment, how you deal with difficult situations.
At times we were lost and confused what the questions were about. The questions come through lens of adoption and in our mind it surrogacy arrangement is different to other types of adoption. Especially for gestational surrogacy the adoption requirement is outdated and hope future surrogates and intending parents in NZ does not have to go through adoption process.
Then there are questions on what may impact your ability to care for the child. For example how would headache, migraine, or lack of sleep affect your ability, how you feel. These types of questions felt odd as although everything in life can change including your health. It seemed even minor every day health issues like headache could make us unfit parents and we needed to provide justifications on how we'd manage this. Should we have this all figured out?
There is a lot of focus on maintaining connection to birth parents in questions. We intent on maintaining relationship with the surrogate and her family. However, the role of "birth parent" is quite different in gestational surrogacy as they do not have genetic link to the child. We already have children's books on how to explain different paths to having a baby and explaining surrogacy to children. Who knew there are so many books on this subject! Book recommendations will be a future post.
Home assessment goes through safety related items at your home. Things like fencing around the property, locks, sharp object storage, medicine storage, and also potential room and space for the baby's nursery. As we have nieces and nephews visiting us from time to time, we actually have a baby gate for front door, and a high chair. But it was odd going through this already as we are not pregnant yet and it will be sometime before that happens.
You might learn new things about yourself and maybe there are topics you and your partner never talked about together before. You will feel excited, anxious, confused, lost, angry, and everything in between as you go through this process. Go in with open mind, this is what intending parents must go through today. Share our story, share your story.
Resources
- ECART The Ethics Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ECART). You can find official information along with previous ECART meeting minutes.
- Oranga Tamariki Surrogacy and Adoption