The Glade 4.0

Laws allowing women in Queensland to bear children for others are expected to be in place next month.

Attorney-General Cameron Dick on Thursday released for consultation draft laws to decriminalise altruistic surrogacy - where a woman gives birth to another couple's child for no payment.

Queensland is the only Australian state in which altruistic surrogacy is a criminal offence, punishable by a $10,000 fine or three years' imprisonment.

Commercial surrogacy will remain illegal.

Mr Dick said under new rules, parties involved in a surrogacy arrangement will need to seek a court order to transfer the legal parentage of the child.

But they must meet certain strict requirements, including satisfying the court they have undergone counselling, received independent legal advice and have established a medical or social need for the surrogacy.

"These reforms mean that many people who once only ever dreamt of starting a family will now be able to make those dreams a reality," Mr Dick said.

But they also included safeguards to protect everyone's rights, including the child's, and ensured the implications of arrangements were clearly understood, he said.

The move comes after a parliamentary committee recommended laws be repealed to stop the practice going underground.

The laws would also recognise same-sex parents after the review raised the issue of female same-sex couples becoming parents, for example, through IVF.

To give their children legal certainty, the government will amend the law to recognise both mothers as parents.

Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek said he would read the draft bill with interest.

He has previously argued the bill's passing would be put in jeopardy if the issue of altruistic surrogacy and gay parenting were not separated.

"I'll be interested to see if there's any decoupling ... of the issue of same-sex parenting," Mr Langbroek said.

"We expressed our concerns about that when the premier brought in her response to the committee."

It is expected the bill will be passed by late November.

Government MPs will be allowed a conscience vote while the opposition has not yet decided how it will vote.

I'm confused. Why was the practice (both for- and not-for-profit) illegal, to begin with?

We also don't have a huge problem with asian women being sold as sex slaves. I think we covered the bases on that particular problem back in the 1800s.

Well part of the reason is that prostitution is legal here, thus lots of women are being told that they would get work here from asian countries. (mostly because they are poorer and can not speak english). They are then forced to work for a certain period of time to 'pay off' their debt to the person who smuggled them here. In essence it's partial sex slavery cause they still get paid, but are extorted for stupid amounts of money.

A new twist on indentured servants is what it sounds like.

Well part of the reason is that prostitution is legal here, thus lots of women are being told that they would get work here from asian countries. (mostly because they are poorer and can not speak english). They are then forced to work for a certain period of time to 'pay off' their debt to the person who smuggled them here. In essence it's partial sex slavery cause they still get paid, but are extorted for stupid amounts of money.

All the more reason to make it that much easier to come to this country legally, IMO.

All the more reason to make it that much easier to come to this country legally, IMO.

Define, easier? What is required to become a citizen? What needs to be changed to make it easier? How will this affect the ability for immigrants to become citizens?

Yes, because allowing more people into the country legally will obviously make it harder for people to lure poor young women (and sometimes men) into sex slavery.

I'm sure he thinks that if they can become citizens then all of a sudden people will start caring more and the authorities will do more to put a stop to this.

Of course there's A) the fact that human traffiking goes in both directions and B) the fact that we're talking about poor ignorant people at the mercy of ruthless criminals. How he thinks they're going to get the chance to become citizens is beyond me. Criminals, contrary to popular belief, do not just fold as soon as you legalize something. They find another way to keep going.

Why do you think you have any idea of what I might be thinking?

And, honestly, I don't believe he thinks [what he said he believes], deep down.

There are people that get caught up in the slave trade because they desperately need to get to this country in order to escape gripping poverty and crime. If it was easier to come to this country, it stands to reason that less of them would be in such a position.