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and a word from the winners… (ABC Radio)
The World Today, Feb 12th 2010
HERE for a transcript / audio of the response from those who want to obliterate any distinction in law between same-sex couples and married couples:
ASHLEY HALL: Gay and lesbian groups say they expect the passing of the laws will smooth the way for more legislation giving equal rights to same sex couples.
PAUL MARTIN: Our position is that if you don’t believe in equality then yes that is homophobic.
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We respond: new law is “legislative child abuse”
Bligh government passes law for open-slather surrogacy
Family Council of Queensland President, Alan Baker said, “The Labor Government had no electoral mandate to impose a gay rights ideology on the Queensland public, totally ignoring the fundamental right of children to be born into this world with both a mother and a father.
“We will be continuing the campaign through our website www.kidsrightscount.org.au to repeal the same‐sex parenting provisions in this Act and will make it an election issue so voters do remember this on polling day.
“This act of legislative child abuse by the Labor Government will be neither forgotten nor forgiven at the next election.”
See Full Press Release HERE
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We respond: new law “trampling on the rights of a child…” (Dr van Gend, ABC Radio)
The World Today, Friday 12th 2010
DAVID VAN GEND: We have told the Labor Party that this is something for which family groups will go to the barricades. This is an assault on the deepest relationship between a mother and child. It is to trample on the rights of a child to have at least the chance of a mum and a dad in its life and not just have one bloke or two blokes or a single woman as its parents.
And so on this we will be targeting every marginal seat in Queensland at the next state election which voted for this hideous bill.
HERE FOR TRANSCRIPT AND AUDIO
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Rabbis condemn Surrogacy (same-sex parenting) Bill
From: Alan Baker [President of the Family Council of Queensland]
Sent: Wednesday, 10 February 2010 3:27 PMThe Hon. Anna Bligh and the Hon. Cameron Dick
I have been asked this afternoon by the leaders of the Jewish faith in Queensland to draw to your attention to the attached statement from the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia, concerning the Surrogacy Bill which is being debated today in the Queensland Parliament.
You will note their strong objection to the legalisation of same-sex parenting.
Their views would be shared by almost every Christian church, as well as the Muslim faith – not to mention the broader community, as 86% of Australians believe that ideally, wherever possible, children should be raised with their biological mother and their biological father.
Rushing this Bill through Parliament today before the public is fully informed on the issue so they can express their views to their elected representatives is an abuse of the democratic process, particularly given that Queensland is the only state without an Upper House of review.
If you impose the gay rights ideology on a conservative Queensland electorate, there will be an electoral price to be paid.
I implore you to adjourn debate on this unethical and unnecessary Bill and have it examined by a new bipartisan parliamentary committee which would consult more extensively with the community.
Kind regards
Alan Baker
President, Family Council of Queensland
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More media coverage the day of the debate: Wednesday 10th Feb
Surrogacy laws “trampling on the rights of children” says Alan Baker (Courier Mail)
Family Council of Queensland president Alan Baker called the Bill “a Trojan horse for the normalisation of same-sex parenting”, saying it established in law “the absurd proposition that two men or two women are the same as a mother and father.” Read more
Children’s rights threatened by surrogacy Bill: Family Council (CathNews)
“this bill smuggles in an oppressive proposal to deprive children of their birthright – their fundamental right to enter the world, as all of us did, with both a mother and a father” says family doctor, David van Gend. Read more
Surrogacy standoff looms in Queensland Parliament (AAP)
Church and family groups have weighed in, urging MPs to reject the bill saying it will threaten the traditional family model and normalise same-sex parenting. Read more
Government stands firm on surrogacy laws (ABC news)
Deputy Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg says the State Government is trying to impose ideas from the “loopy left” on the community. Read more
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Family advocates in the media
Australian Christian Lobby want gays banned from surrogacy (AAP)
…The Australian Christian Lobby says children are not pets and should not simply be given to anyone who wants one.
ACL managing director Jim Wallace says the surrogacy bill should have been directed at permitting surrogacy as a last resort for infertile married couples. Instead it represents a piece of radical social engineering which will alter the natural make-up of the family by permitting single adults and same-sex couples to have children via surrogacy, he said. Read more
Surrogacy seen as threat to children’s rights (Zenit news agency)
…A proposed bill that would legalize altruistic surrogacy in Queensland is not only unnecessary, but is a violation of one’s birthright to enter into the world with a mother and a father, says the Family Council of Queensland.
The bill is strongly opposed by almost all Christian denominations, as well as the Jewish and Muslim faiths.
Alan Baker of the Kids Rights Count campaign maintains that “the Government is trying to rush it through before the wider community realizes that this extreme piece of social engineering will deprive some children born in the contexts of surrogacy, AID and IVF of either a mother or a father.” Read more
Surrogacy law concerns raised (Catholic Leader)
THE campaign to oppose Queensland’s proposed surrogacy laws has stepped up with further meetings between senior government figures and Church and pro-family leaders.
Last Wednesday, a delegation including Archbishop John Bathersby of Brisbane and Queensland Bioethics Centre (QBC) director Ray Campbell met with State Attorney-General Cameron Dick to discuss amendments to lessen the impact of the legislation. Read more
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Couldn’t have said it better ourselves…
In his address delivered yesterday morning to the Pontifical Council for the Family, Pope Benedict XVI said:
“In the preamble, the Convention [on the Rights of the Child] indicates the family as ‘the natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members, especially children.’ Certainly, it is precisely the family, founded on marriage between a man and a woman, which is the greatest help that can be given to children. They want to be loved by a mother and a father who love one another, and they need to dwell, grow and live together with both parents, because the maternal and paternal figure are complementary in the education of children and in the construction of their personality and their identity. Hence, it is important that everything possible is done to make them grow in a united and stable family.”
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24 hours until vote – Family Council of Qld says “Stop this assault on the rights of a child”
Media Release | 09 February 2009
As the Surrogacy Bill 2009 comes before Parliament today or tomorrow, the Family Council of Queensland has stepped up its opposition, through its campaign Kids Rights Count (www.KidsRightsCount.org.au).
Family doctor and FCQ spokesman, Dr David van Gend, with FCQ president Alan Baker, wrote to all MPs today saying:
“This Bill should have been about altruistic surrogacy as a ‘last resort’ for an infertile couple. But no, under that respectable cloak this Bill smuggles in an oppressive proposal to deprive children of their birthright – their fundamental right to enter the world, as all of us did, with both a mother and a father.
“By what authority does any government permit adults to deny a child her primal right and most profound emotional need: to have both a Mum and a Dad in her life?”
Dr van Gend underlined that: “This Bill allows adults over 25 (including a single man or woman, or same-sex couples) to obtain a child ‘of their own’ using reproductive technology like IVF and a surrogate womb – and the birth certificate will be legally falsified to declare the single woman, or the two men, to be the baby’s ‘parents’.”
The campaign website stresses how and why this is wrong. It cites the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child which affirms that a child must not, “save in the most exceptional circumstances, be separated from his mother.”
“And yet this Bill will do exactly that, in a premeditated way,” says Dr van Gend. “For example, a little girl or boy shall live without a mother, simply to satisfy the desire of two men to have a baby of their own. This Bill clearly despises the rights of this child; it is an assault on the heart and mind of a little child, and any MP who votes for this Bill is complicit in that assault.”
WRONG – BUT ALSO UNNECESSARY
The Kids Rights Count website presents videos of various experts including lawyers who underline how unnecessary this bill is. David Grace of Cooper Grace Ward recommends an alternative of an amendment to the existing Succession Act (to give surrogate children inheritance rights). Federal Court parenting orders already provide for the legal guardianship of the child.
But, in an interview on ABC radio last week featuring the Attorney General, Mr Cameron Dick and Dr van Gend, Mr Dick argued that this Bill is necessary to remove the current penalty of imprisonment for “parents” who obtain a surrogate child.
The Family Council of Queensland agrees that it’s not in the interests of an innocent child for his carers to be imprisoned, so we support that change, but not through this Bill. Change can be achieved by amending existing surrogacy laws rather than introducing this extreme piece of social engineering.
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CONTACT: Alan Baker (President FCQ) ph: —; Dr David van Gend (Committee Member) ph: — Cath Smibert (media adviser) n—
KEY QUOTE: Dr David van Gend of Kids Rights Count -
“There is no necessity for the Surrogacy Bill 2009. There is a grave necessity – and duty – to reject a Bill that would, through normalizing same-sex and single surrogacy, intentionally and wantonly deprive a child of her birthright and her most profound psychological need: to have both a mother and a father.”
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KRC on ABC Radio: Surrogacy Bill wrong and unnecessary
Listen here (7MB, requires QuickTime) to Kids Rights Count spokesman, Dr David van Gend, and Qld Attorney General Cameron Dick interviewed on the Surrogacy Bill 2009 on ABC radio.
The Attorney General defended the Government’s Surrogacy Bill on two grounds – but both of his legitimate points can be resolved without resorting to this radical, culture-deforming piece of social engineering.
First, Mr Dick raised the concern that the current laws in Queensland carry a possible prison sentence for anybody engaging in surrogacy – even altruistic surrogacy. Both political parties agree in wanting to remove the prospect of imprisonment for the adults in charge of a surrogate baby – and so, indeed, do we at Kids Rights Count, because it is not in the interests of a child to have his or her carers in prison. However, that change can be achieved by a simple amendment to the existing surrogacy law of 1988 – we do not need a new law that smuggles in radical and harmful social experiments under the respectable cloak of decriminalising altruistic suggogacy.
Second, Mr Dick referred to the need to treat all kids equally – for instance the issues of a surrogate child’s right to inherit from a deceased surrogate ‘parent’. Also the issue of legal certainty of guardianship for a surrogate child (so an adult(s) has legally secure rights and responsibilities in the care of a surrogate child, regarding health matters, education etc).
Again, we agree – the child should not be further disadvantaged just because of the disturbed circumstances of her creation and birth. As Dr van Gend explained in advance, both these issues are readily sorted out without recourse to this radical new surrogacy Bill.
1. Re inheritance: amendments can be made to the Succession Act to allow a surrogate child, like other childrne whose parental circumstances are irregular, to have a claim on the estate of those acting as their ‘parents’.
2. Re certainty of guardianship – such situations are already being adequately resolved through the Family Court, under federal legislation, and there is again no justification for introducing the surrogacy-any-two-blokes-can-have-their-own-baby-Bill 2009 in Queensland.
No, the cultural wrecking-ball of the Surrogacy Bill 2009 is not justified by the Attorney General’s arguments. This Bill is not only wrong, it is unnecessary.
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Thousands petition: No to Qld surrogacy(24/11/09)
SEE PETITION HERE
MEDIA RELEASEFor release: November 24, 2009
2,000 petition parliament: Christians oppose radicalsame-sex surrogacy moves in Queensland More than 2,000 Christians have petitioned the Queensland Parliament not to proceed with radical surrogacy legislation proposed by the Queensland Government which would permit two men or two women or a single person to acquire a baby.
Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) Queensland Director Peter Earle organised the petition signed by 2034 people which was tabled in parliament this morning by Independent Maryborough MP Chris Foley.
Mr Earle said the petition was just another indication of the deep concern in the Queensland community about the proposed surrogacy legislation which, if passed, would undermine the natural structure of families in the State.
“If surrogacy for same-sex couples and single people was legalised in Queensland it would deny children the right to begin life with a mum AND dad – defying the natural order and mainstream community values,” Mr Earle said.
“If the Government is determined to proceed with surrogacy legislation then at the very least it needs to ensure that the issue of surrogacy for same-sex couples and single people is considered separately from heterosexual surrogacy and that Labor MPs are given a true conscience vote on both issues.
“It would be deplorable for such contentious social engineering legislation to be pushed through Parliament without proper consideration. We do not support surrogacy at all, and believe Governments should be concerned about the relational and legal consequences of surrogacy even where married heterosexual couples are involved. However, we recognise that in this situation children have the benefit of the love and role models of both a mother and a father, and there is broad community support for it,” he said.
“Surrogacy for same-sex couples and single people is a far different issue, and clearly puts the desires of adults to have a child way above the best interests of the child.”
The petition tabled in Parliament this morning says: “Queensland residents draw to the attention of the House the fact that the practice of altruistic surrogacy brings into conflict the rights of adults and children. Surrogacy is a complicated process for adults and especially for children. It entails a range of ethical concerns, including disruption of relationship links between marriage, conception, gestation, birth and motherhood, which are important human identity factors.
Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to not allow children to be created through artificial reproductive technology and placed in relational constructs thatdeliberately deny them their biological bonds and the love, care and role modelling of both a mother and a father.”
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