New Surrogacy Guidelines Ignore Calls for Abolition – The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network

According to a recent international announcement on surrogacy guidelines, leading fertility organizations—including ASPIRE, ESHRE, ASRM, and IFFS—have collaborated to develop “minimum standards” for surrogacy practices worldwide. The effort is presented (should we say masqueraded) as a response to mounting concern over exploitation and inconsistent regulation.

However, this framing sits uneasy alongside the broader international context and seems to be a move of desperation from those at the top of the fertility food chain rather than true care for women, children, and families. These “guidelines” come in the wake of a clear and urgent call from the United Nations to move toward the abolition of surrogacy due to its inherent risks of exploitation.

Specifically, the recent report by UN Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem, interestingly cited at ASPIRE, calls not for improved regulation, but for dismantling the system altogether – through the abolition of surrogacy. Against this backdrop, industry-led “self-regulation” appears not as a solution, but as deflection and strategy for preservation. These guidelines are being advanced in the name of “international cooperation,” yet they emerge from within the same sector that benefits directly from surrogacy arrangements.

If the goal is truly to uphold human rights, the conversation must continue to move beyond regulation toward abolition. Anything less risks entrenching the very harms that the international community has begun to acknowledge—and condemn.

Source: New Surrogacy Guidelines Ignore Calls for Abolition – The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network

Move towards global consensus guidelines on surrogacy with mounting concerns over human rights violations | PR Newswire

BEIJING, May 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — World leaders in assisted reproductive technology are finalising global consensus guidelines on minimal standards in surrogacy to address mounting concerns about severe human rights violations.

The standards will attempt to tackle inconsistent or inadequate regulation of the practice, particularly in settings where there is disempowerment of women and girls including violence, abuse and exploitation of surrogates.

It is a move being propelled by a global collaboration between the Asia Pacific Initiative on Reproduction (ASPIRE), the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE), the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), and the International Federation of Fertility Societies (IFFS).

It was spearheaded by ASPIRE and during discussions between the global consensus group the United Nations (UN) issued a report calling for its 193 member States to move towards eradicating surrogacy in all its forms. The report, presented at the UN General Assembly in October 2025, said the member States should adopt a legal and policy framework for surrogacy pending its abolition.

The first draft consensus guidelines on surrogacy developed by representatives of the peak fertility societies will be presented for the first time at the ASPIRE 2026 Congress in Beijing this week, a meeting that will be attended by around 3,000 fertility specialists from across the world.

Source: Move towards global consensus guidelines on surrogacy with mounting concerns over human rights violations

Sophie Quinn’s family speaks out as alleged killer found dead | Women’s Agenda

The family of Sophie Quinn have spoken publicly after the body of her alleged murderer, Julian Ingram, was discovered by police on Monday afternoon next to an abandoned ute 50km north-west of Lake Cargelligo in NSW.

Since January, police had been searching for the gunman believed to have killed Sophie, her friend John Harris, and her aunt Nerida Quinn, in Lake Cargelligo, 570 kilometres northwest of Sydney. 

At the time of her death, Sophie was 7-months pregnant.

Quinn, 25, and Harris, 32, were shot and killed in the afternoon of January 22 when bullets were fired into a dark hatchback on Bokhara St in Lake Cargelligo. Shortly after, Quinn’s aunt, Nerida, 50, was shot and killed at a home in a nearby street. 

Her son’s teenage friend, Kaleb Macqueen was shot in the back of the head, his hand, shoulder and leg, but survived with serious injuries. At the time of the shootings, Ingram was on bail for alleged domestic violence offences against Quinn and is believed to have carried out the murders just hours after reporting to a local police station as part of his bail conditions.

Local police had granted Ingram bail last November after his alleged assault around the time he separated from Quinn.

Local resident Dwayne Kirby, who saw Quinn and Harris get shot, questioned why he had been granted bail.

“We’re glad he’s been found, but he should still be alive, so the family can get justice,” he said. “I’m hoping in some way they can.”

So far this year in Australia, 23 women and 8 children have been killed in incidents of domestic violence, according to The RED HEART Movement, the organisation that tracks every known Australian woman and child killed as a result of murder, manslaughter or neglect.

In 2025, 79 women were killed in incidents of domestic violence.

Source: Sophie Quinn’s family speaks out as alleged killer found dead

Update on Giggle v Tickle

Judgment Update
The Full Federal Court has advised that judgment in Giggle v Tickle will be delivered on Friday, 15 May 2026 at 2:00pm AEST.

The judgment will be livestreamed on the Australian Federal Court YouTube channel.

Watch the Livestream

International Times:
🇬🇧 UK (BST):15 May at 5:00 AM
🇺🇸 USA East (EDT):15 May at 12:00 AM (midnight)
🇺🇸 USA West (PDT):14 May at 9:00 PM

Statement by Ms. Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women | Global Humanitude

It has come to my attention during my visit that ANTRA had circulated a document (Portuguese and informal English translation attached in the annex 1) to many interlocutors and stakeholders in Brazil, particularly in government and official institutions, to discourage them from meeting with me.  In doing so, ANTRA has successfully managed to pressure judges in the Supreme Court of Brazil from meeting with me and from attending the seminar in which I spoke at the University of Brazilia on the 3rd of March 2026.

Some of these false allegations and misinformation were repeated in the document issued by ANTRA following my visit entitled: “Sexuality Policy Watch, Dossier on Anti-Trans Policies” (May 2026)”

            As the documents illustrate, ANTRA has once again disseminated misinformation and disinformation about my positions and statements. Since my positions are extensively documented and elaborated, such misrepresentation cannot be accidental.

I take the opportunity to correct the misinformation briefly again here.

Source: Global Humanitude (SCS)

Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry into surrogacy: Three women changed my mind on surrogacy | SMH | Jenna Price

This moment is a tipping point for surrogacy in Australia. Do we stay with the model of what we call “altruistic surrogacy”, doing it for love, kindness or charity? Or do we go with “compensated surrogacy”, a coded word for payment for the surrogate mother that goes beyond the bare expenses? It’s used instead of the more honest “commercial surrogacy” because that seems too much like we are buying and selling babies.

The ALRC was asked to inquire into surrogacy laws in Australia under the chairmanship of Justice Mordy Bromberg. Its report to federal Attorney-General Michelle Rowland will be delivered in a few weeks. Its advisory committee, now disbanded, looks like fan fiction for the commercial surrogacy lobby, with some prominent fertility lawyers among its cast.

Believe me, I understand the nearly overwhelming desire to have a baby. When I met my husband, I wanted six. Fortunately, sense, my lovely spouse and exhaustion after three kids prevailed. He was also the one who had the good sense to steer me away from becoming a surrogate for my sister. He was right. I might have handed the kid over, but I would never have been able to relinquish my motherhood. My sister never had kids. She died. Our relationship never recovered.

But I remained a firm supporter of surrogacy for decades, for other people, if not for me. Earlier this year, I spoke to three women who changed my mind. Australia finally apologised for the pain of forced adoptions, but these women explained how much surrogacy has in common with that barbaric practice.

Patricia Harper, one of the early founders of the National Council for Single Mothers and their Children, discovered the ALRC inquiry had no room for women affected by adoption. She had held tight to her daughter Ruth in 1968, when friends, families, strangers, all tried to force Patricia’s hand because she had no husband. Lily Clifford, one of the founders of the Association of Relinquishing Mothers, had her son removed in 1972 because she was not married to the baby’s father. And I spoke to Sarah Dingle, author of Brave New Humans, who discovered in her 20s that she was donor-conceived with no way of discovering who her father was. She argues that when children are a result of surrogacy, there are many ways they may be sold, isolated from their families and/or lied to.

Not one of these women was called to take part in consultations with the surrogacy inquiry. Not one. Despite their intense understanding of the pain of relinquishment, the pain of distance.

Commercial surrogacy is banned in this country. And, for those who don’t know, the surrogacy laws in NSW, Queensland and the ACT also make it a criminal offence for their residents to travel overseas and engage in commercial surrogacy. As I understand, there has never been a prosecution for accessing commercial surrogacy.

As with any commercial transaction, lots can go very wrong. If the ALRC report goes in favour of compensated surrogacy, the name change won’t make it any safer. And it won’t protect the babies, the children or the adults.

Let’s honour Sonia Allan, eminent legal academic in surrogacy law, who died in March. Her last letter to Justice Bromberg asked the inquiry to consider the interests of the children. They are the ones who suffer. We can’t ban surrogacy. But please, please, let’s protect children from being just another transaction in our commodified lives.

Source: Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry into surrogacy: Three women changed my mind on surrogacy

This Never Happens – The Glinner Update

Men, as a class, pose a danger to women, as a class. That is an unequivocal fact. And male offending patterns are not altered by ‘gender identity’.

Whenever women protest the inclusion of trans-identified males in our spaces, we’re shouted down and dismissed as transphobes and hysterics. ‘Trans women’ pose us no risk, we’re constantly told. This never happens. When we produce evidence to the contrary, we’re accused of bigotry and of demonising trans people. We cannot win.

The point is that men can pose a threat to women and children however they ‘identify’ and women have every reason to fear male violence. Since it’s impossible to tell which males are harmless and which are not, basic safeguarding means we exclude all males from women’s spaces. Even the ones who claim to ‘identify as women’. This list – and it’s a far from exhaustive list – demonstrates that we are right to do so.

With each case described in more detail below, here are 236 examples of ‘transwomen’ predating on women and/or children.

Source: This Never Happens – The Glinner Update

Sydney Uni revokes invitation for former Knox teacher William Gulson | SMH

A former Knox Grammar teacher has avoided jail for grooming a child, with a judge ruling it could still have caused harm despite the teenager acting as a vigilante in an attempt to “catch pedos”.

The 28-year-old was sentenced to a three-year community correction order – essentially a good behaviour bond – at Downing Centre Local Court on Friday for procuring whom he thought was a 15-year-old child for sex.

He was also placed on the NSW Child Protection Register.

The former teacher unsuccessfully fought to have no criminal conviction recorded so that he could return to teaching, while the court heard his resume falsely claimed he was still a teacher.

The resume was tendered alongside a written reference that said Gulson had received the University of Sydney’s John Bell and Joyce Williams Prize in Shakespeare Studies.

In response to questions about the circumstances surrounding Gulson’s invitation to the ceremony, given his serious offending, a University of Sydney spokesperson confirmed the invite had been scrapped on Thursday afternoon.

Gulson came undone when the student told friends about the chats and the matter was reported to police. The teacher was recognisable in photos found on a device.

On Thursday, Chan grilled Gulson’s treating psychologist Carl Hattingh on his opinion that his client did not have a sexual interest in children, given he searched more than 100 terms relating to “gay child porn”, child abuse and similar phrases.

Chan, however, put the re-offending risk at above average.

“There is absolutely no sign of remorse or contrition or acknowledgement of harm whatsoever expressed by the offender,” Chan said.

“In no sense… could a teacher of a 15-year-old child seeking to procure a 15-year-old child for unlawful sexual activity be described as trivial offending”.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Gulson attended Knox and graduated in 2014.

In 2023, he received a “Living Our Values” award from the Knox Grammar School Council.

Source: Sydney Uni revokes invitation for former Knox teacher William Gulson

Sydney childcare centres caught employing banned workers in national safety blitz | SMH

Two Sydney childcare centres were caught this week employing workers who have been banned from working with children, as regulators crack down on the sector.

New rules requiring early learning services to undertake strict screening checks of workers, entering their details in a new national register, are now in place as the NSW government vows to build a system where child safety and quality are non-negotiable.

The crackdown comes after a series of high-profile incidents at childcare centres have put safety in the spotlight and forced governments to intervene.

Among the most notorious cases was one of Australia’s worst childcare paedophiles, Ashley Paul Griffith, who escaped detection for years despite multiple incidents and complaints, due to childcare centres not keeping records for why they no longer employed him, and failures to seek referee reports from previous places of work.

Griffith has pleaded guilty to more than 300 offences in Australia and abroad, including in early learning settings. He is known to have worked across multiple services and across states, remaining undetected for some years.

During a compliance blitz this week, the NSW Early Learning Commission and the Victorian Early Childhood Regulatory Authority visited more than 500 centres.

Officers checked whether approved providers had implemented the mandatory National Early Childhood Worker Register, a platform developed to ensure greater visibility of people working in the sector.

During the blitz, one south-western Sydney provider was fined $20,000 for hiring someone who had been prohibited from working with children after they used “inappropriate discipline” on a child.

[Ed: Man or woman? Carefully worded. I just hope hapless women in the sector aren’t now paying for the sins of depraved males.]

Source: Sydney childcare centres caught employing banned workers in national safety blitz

Home of Barrie Drewitt-Barlow – one of ‘Britain’s first gay dads’ – is raided as police probe alleged rape and human trafficking for sexual exploitation | Daily Mail Online

The home of reality TV star and Britain’s first openly gay football club owner Barrie Drewitt-Barlow has been raided by police as part of an investigation into alleged human trafficking for sexual exploitation and rape.

Multi-millionaire Drewitt-Barlow, who bought non-league Maldon and Tiptree FC last February and is one half of ‘Britain’s first gay dads’, lives in the plush Essex mansion with husband, Scott Hutchison.

Essex Police later confirmed that two men – aged 57 and 32 – were arrested on suspicion of rape, human trafficking for sexual exploitation and administering a noxious substance.

Drewitt-Barlow and his ex-husband made headlines in 1999 when they became one of the first gay couples in the UK to have children through a surrogate mother.

Source: Home of Barrie Drewitt-Barlow – one of ‘Britain’s first gay dads’ – is raided as police probe alleged rape and human trafficking for sexual exploitation | Daily Mail Online