Jennifer agreed to be a surrogate for her best friend. One year later, she signed adoption papers

7NEWS

15-06-2025

Jennifer McCloy knew she had to step in when she found out her best friend Edwina couldn't have a child.
For nine months, she carried baby Angus, a child which was not biologically hers, for Edwina Peach, allowing her friend of more than 30 years the joy of becoming a mother.
However, instead of lovingly giving Angus over to his parents after the birth, McCloy was forced to be his legal guardian for a year.
As is currently required, the families had to file adoption paperwork before taking custody of Angus.
Now, amid the newly announced inquiry into NSW's surrogacy, McCloy wants to see changes.
McCloy appeared on Weekend Sunrise, explaining her story.
'(When we decided to do this) I was actually pregnant with my son Alfie, and I went to my husband and said, 'Hey, this is something I'm thinking about doing (for Edwina and her husband). What do you think?'
'We did a bucket of research on surrogacy and how it works here in Australia, because there is lot of information. And when Alfie was a few months old, we had the chat with Edwina and Charlie, her husband.
'Alfie had just brought us so much happiness becoming parents. So, we just believed that Edwina and Charlie deserved that too.'
McCloy said in her situation, she and Edwina were close friends for many years. However, the adoption laws involving surrogates could have made the process a lot more complicated for other families.
'It's mind-blowing,' McCloy said.
'That's the way that things are here in Australia. And that's a good example of why we are pushing for change.
'I often say this, but I truly believe that parenthood should be an option for every Australian, no matter what that looks like.'
McCloy went on to say fertility issues are widespread for Australian couples.
'The statistics now tell us that one in six couples in Australia will face fertility challenges, which is huge.
'Yes, we (Edwina and I) had a truly beautiful experience. We've been friends for over 30 years. Medically, everything went smoothly.
'But our situation, I would say, isn't reflective of the thousands of couples that face fertility challenges every year in Australia.'
McCloy said she wanted to see changes across the board, to be more supportive of Aussie families.
'There really needs to be support for Australians to build and grow their families.'
McCloy went on to speak about the public inquiry.
'We will be looking into all fertility support,' she said.
'So that's everything from IVF to pregnancy loss to surrogacy to male fertility, which accounts for over 40 per cent of fertility challenges in Australia.
'The current laws in this country around fertility are just not reflective of the way things are today. And that was acknowledged last week in NSW parliament when the inquiry was proposed by Sarah Mitchell, who'll be chairing the committee.
'I've been working with Sarah and her team for the past two-and-a-bit years to make sure we get this right, and the proposal was met with full cross-party endorsement, stating that fertility support in this country needs to change.'
McCloy said baby Angus is now a happy and healthy toddler.
'He is fantastic. He's two-and-a-half now, and he's a very happy, bubbly little boy,' she said.
IVF failing to pass the pub test
Australia's IVF accreditation system fails to pass the pub test, a government minister has said, as discussions continue following multiple embryo mix-ups at one of the nation's largest fertility providers.
State and territory health ministers met with their federal counterpart on Friday, where it was agreed that a rapid nationwide review would begin to consider establishing an independent accreditation body.
It comes after Monash IVF revealed staff had transferred the wrong embryo to a woman at a Melbourne clinic last week, following a similar blunder involving a separate Monash patient in Brisbane.
Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said she hoped the establishment of an independent body could occur immediately, but claimed it was met with pushback from Queensland.
'We've got to move quickly,' she told reporters.
'It's concerning ... there may well be more errors that we don't know about. And that is because the body that currently accredits fertility care providers is made up of fertility care providers.
'That's why I find Queensland's position so perplexing.'
A spokesman for Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls said the minister had 'advocated for an informed understanding' of the accreditation and regulation framework.
'Health ministers decided that Queensland would lead work to understand the issues better and to ensure a strategy would be well-informed,' the spokesman said.
The three-month review will consider whether the state regulatory schemes are fit for purpose when it comes to safety and quality.
The IVF industry is primarily regulated by states and territories.
Clinics must be licensed to operate by the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee.
Thomas said the main issue for her was how fertility care was accredited.
'It simply doesn't pass the pub test that the people that provide the service are also the ones that determine who provides the service,' she said.
'We have work to do there.'
Embryo mix-ups 'frankly shocking', says federal health minister
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler, who used IVF to welcome his third child, described the two recent embryo mix-ups as 'frankly shocking'.
'As governments, we've got a responsibility to see whether there are better levels of regulation that should be put in place, and to inject some confidence back into a system that delivers such joy to so many thousands of families every year,' he told ABC Radio.
Monash IVF chief executive Michael Knaap resigned on Thursday after it was revealed staff at a Melbourne laboratory gave a patient one of her embryos, instead of one from her partner as intended.
An investigation is under way into how it happened.
The company, which has a presence across Australia, apologised to the couple, while the Victorian Health Regulator has also launched an investigation.
Monash revealed in April that a woman at a Brisbane facility was incorrectly impregnated with another patient's embryo, which was blamed on 'human error'.
The mistake was picked up after the child was born when the birth parents asked for their remaining embryos to be transferred elsewhere and an additional embryo was unexpectedly found in storage.
Former Monash director Gab Kovacs, who was involved with developing earlier IVF guidelines, told AAP the mix-up was a 'very rare occurrence'.
'However, with 100,000 cycles of IVF in Australia, even with this occurring very, very rarely, it is inevitable that this will happen,' Kovacs said.
'It is due to human error and this cannot be eliminated.
'The two incidents happened in two separate clinics, 2000km apart ... (involving) different personnel, different lab managers.'
About 20,000 babies conceived by IVF are born in Australia each year.