Legal issues relating to the use of surrogate mothers in the practice of assisted conception

The statutory regulation of surrogate motherhood in the Children’s Act 38 of 2005 is fraught with practical, legal and ethical problems. Healthcare professionals specialising in assisted conception are often confronted with practical scenarios for which the Children’s Act does not provide clear answers. The purpose of this article is to briefly examine some of these questions against the background of the relevant legislation and recent case law.