Tonight on Sunday ` desperate for a baby. You have a womb, and they want it. Surrogacy ` what happens when it goes wrong? I felt like a baby-snatcher. The reality is we have no rights. Do laws here need to change? Surrogacy is a dirty little secret in NZ. It's such a buzz. It's, like, 'Oh my God! I did do that.' Born to surf. Your heart is pumping; your adrenalin's going. The Whangamata teen-turned-world champ. No stopping now. I just gotta keep going. Copyright Able 2014 Kia ora. I'm Miriama Kamo. It has to be one of the most generous acts of human kindness ` a woman offering to carry a baby for an infertile, childless couple. But what if things go wrong? How protected are you if, say, your surrogate changes their mind and doesn't want to hand the baby over? Well, right now, the law would side with the surrogate. So is it time for change? Here's Libby Middlebrook. We have six embryos on ice, and there are potentially two, three lives in there, and I don't want to throw them away. Phil and Olivia Patton are set to take a remarkable leap of faith. Are you nervous? > Are you nervous? > Absolutely. But I'm prepared to take that risk. Because you want a baby that much? Because you want a baby that much? Exactly. She has no hope of ever carrying her own children. Their dreams of a family are at the mercy of a total stranger. Oh, it frightens me. The reality is we have no rights. Surrogacy is still almost like a dirty little secret in NZ. Surrogacy, where a woman gives birth to a baby for another couple. It's legal here, but what most families don't realise is how risky it can be ` how outdated the laws are and how vulnerable they'll be, including the baby. We just had a miscommunication that just exploded, and it brought out the worst in all of us. I helped them hostage with the baby. Who does that? A high-risk path to parenthood, yet one Phil and Olivia are still willing to take. We've got a shot; we've got a chance. And that chance is something that Liv and I won't turn out backs on. They've already been through four rounds of IVF. Any pregnancies? > Any pregnancies? > Nothing, no. And there never will be. Olivia has Crohn's disease, and complications mean she can't carry a baby. It lives with me every day. And it's just a reminder that because of that, I can't have children. Yet they still have hope ` those six tiny embryos and finding a woman willing to carry their baby through surrogacy. Is it going to be difficult to find someone? > Yes. And since I've started the search and` it is very hard. Why do you think that is? Why do you think that is? I think a lot of it comes down to payment. I think if there was some sort of reimbursement, I think a lot more women would put their hand up. Surrogates are hardly sought after, and it's illegal to pay them. But family or friends can't help. We've been through everybody within a 10km radius. People have no choice but to compete online in forums full of infertile couples looking for a surrogate,... 'My name is Olivia. I'm very new to this forum and the whole process of looking for a GS...' ...searching for a stranger like Kat Andrews. It sounds very mercenary, but you have a womb, and they want it. Are people willing to act illegally, pay large sums of money? Yeah, absolutely. That's... That's quite high on the list of what they will do. So what's the going rate? So what's the going rate? It's somewhere around 20,000. How are ya? But Kat did it for nothing ` Watch the gap and mind the step. twice. A curious position for a woman who never desired her own children. I don't particularly like children. So why on earth would you want to be a surrogate? Why not? I could help. Why not? It's fairly sim` In my mind, it's really simple, but so many people don't understand it. You all right? She's living an independent life in Milford Sound. That's 700m. But six years ago, she went searching for a couple to help and picked the Snows. As soon as I walked in, I just felt totally at home, totally at ease and accepted. And she said, 'Well, you know,... 'your bits don't work and my bits do, so let's make a baby.' (LAUGHS) Bernice and Mark Snow needed not only Kat's womb but also one of her eggs. We don't do it through a clinic. It's the old turkey baster method. Man goes into the bathroom does his bit. It's the worst kind of performance pressure a man can ever experience. It's the worst kind of performance pressure a man can ever experience. ALL LAUGH Kat got pregnant with a little girl ` she and Mark's biological daughter. From the outset, it was always Bernice and Mark's child. I never once stopped and went, 'This is mine.' Ysabellah Snow was born one cold winter night; MARK: This beautiful, fragile little creature. a little girl brought to life the only way she could be, thanks to the kindness of a stranger. It was amazing. Just this look on Bernice's face of... (GASPS IN AWE) That was the moment that I'd done it for. And I just thought, (GASPS) 'We did it. She's here.' But it would took many months of anguish ahead to make Ysabellah truly their daughter. Did you know what you were in for? > Um, I thought we were ready for it. I thought we'd prepared as best we could, but I was in no way prepared for the actual emotional impact that comes with dealing with, um,... social workers and CYFs and lawyers, courts. How did it leave you feeling? How did it leave you feeling? I felt like a baby-snatcher. That one! Ysabellah is Mark's genetic child, but he soon discovered he had no legal standing as a parent. It makes me very angry. Um... Quite frankly, the rules` the law's an ass around it. It's the same for all intending parents in surrogacy. They have no legal rights, even when there's a biological link. The law sees the surrogate as the legal parent, because she's the birth mother, and she has ultimate say over the baby. We have no rights from the moment the embryo is implanted in the surrogate. It's risky for everyone, not just hopeful parents like Phil and Olivia. While the surrogate could change her mind and keep a baby, she could also be abandoned with a child she never wanted. It frightens me, because no matter what process you go through or what relationship you think you build with that surrogate, you never know. You know, people change their mind. Intending parents are forced to go through the 1955 Adoption Act in order to be formally recognised as parents ` legislation drafted long before surrogacy was commonly heard of. So I'm a sperm donor of my own` of my own child. I'm a sperm donor until such point in time that we apply to adopt our child. Right up until the moment those adoption papers are signed, you don't know 100% it's gonna work out. It did work out. So much so, Kat decided to do it all again for another infertile couple. But this time, it was a complete disaster. A miscommunication just exploded into a nightmare. She became pregnant with a little boy ` again genetically hers and that of the intending father. So when did you start to fall out? So when did you start to fall out? Around about the time of the 20-week scan. Kat says the couple suddenly reneged on a promise. I felt betrayed that they'd just written me off as unimportant. It was the catalyst to the swift and utter disintegration of their relationship. It hit rock-bottom. It couldn't get much worse. Were you both to blame? Were you both to blame? Absolutely. We were both... just butting heads. And there was no` neither of us were going to back down. And at the centre of the storm, a baby boy just days away from being born. I was a mess. And most of the times` you know, the baby would kick, I'd just be like, 'Urgh!' Kat, alone and pregnant, announced she was having second thoughts and thinking of adopting out the baby ` her legal right as the birth mother. I wanted nothing to do with them. At all. And the first person who looked at me sideways on the street would have got that baby. You threatened to take their baby away from them? Yeah. I wasn't going to keep it; I didn't want it. But... < You didn't want them to have it either. < You didn't want them to have it either. No. Coming up ` Kat holds all the cards. He said, 'We're gonna fight this.' And a radical new proposal for surrogacy in NZ. At the moment, it's just not safe enough. She can see it clearly now, but at eight months pregnant, Kat Andrews was at her most vulnerable ` It was hormones; it was depression; it was... the wiring in my brain was just short-circuiting rapidly. due to give birth to another couple's baby; their relationship in tatters. I didn't want them anyway near me. Kat couldn't see any other way out. She told the couple she was having second thoughts and wanted to adopt the baby out ` her legal right as the birth mother. They were in tears, and the father just turned` he said to me, 'We're gonna fight this. 'We will fight that every step of the way.' So what did you decide to do? So what did you decide to do? My decision was that I gave up fighting. I lost the fight. It was two days before the birth, and I just went, 'I give up.' They won by default. Did it feel like the right thing? Did it feel like the right thing? I wasn't sure. It was only when they got the baby for the first time that I realised that yes, I had made the right decision. They genuinely did love that baby. That was four years ago now. Their relationship is still fragile, but they try to stay in touch. For the rest of my life, I will have a connection with them, whether I like it or not, and so I've got to make the best of it. So much left to chance when there's so much at stake. When things go wrong after you've started a pregnancy, that is a disaster. Waikato University's Ruth Walker. It's because of stories like Kat's that she and colleague Liezl van Zyl are now highly critical of our current system for surrogacy. The assumptions are that altruistic surrogacy is inherently superior, morally superior or safer for the surrogate. We don't think it is. Why not? I think it asks too much of the women who are prepared to act as surrogates. They have proposed radical changes, including new laws to make the intending parents the legal parents from the moment of a child's birth. Isn't that a step too far? When you actually ask women who've been gestational surrogates or even genetic surrogates, they have not felt that it was their baby. And in fact, most cases, the baby is handed over quite happily. They think a new professional model should be introduced ` a system where all surrogates would be screened and supported. At the moment, only people who use fertility clinics get good guidance. And crucially, they want every surrogate to be paid. We've seen a lot of assumptions that payment is pernicious. Full stop. If you have pay people to have babies, then you're exploiting them; you're buying babies. The payment` The payment` Are you not? The payment` Are you not? No, you're not. You are buying more than nine months of intelligent and conscientious nurture. Can't you still have that without exchanging money? You could, but that won't necessarily make it better. It seems that we're still caught in a... a trap of thinking that the most important womanly work should be unpaid or it's` or it's corrupted. It's a view that seems to be garnering support in the surrogacy community; not surprisingly with couples like Phil and Olivia, who want the rules around payment to surrogates to be relaxed. They've been hugely generous enough to do something for us that to give them something back that makes it a little bit easier for them, I think is acceptable. And experts say it could stop families from taking an even bigger gamble ` travelling overseas to have a baby through international surrogacy. Have you considered commercial surrogacy? Have you considered commercial surrogacy? No. There's risks all over it. Phil and Olivia want their children to be born at home, close to friends and family,... I want to be on the journey with the person who's going to carry our child. ...in the hope that one day they'll have an outcome like this. Kat's become an important part of Ysabellah's life ` How are you? How are you? Good. a little girl who has her blue eyes. Auntie Katherine. Auntie Katherine. Yeah? Would you be able to come and watch the Christmas concert? That's what I'm here for, honey ` to see you. She's a cool kid. She's a really bright and bubbly and happy little girl. CHILDREN SING And she's known from day dot that I'm her birth mother. I've had one amazing surrogacy journey with Bernice and Mark. It comes down to the individuals in the relationship as to how well they communicate. APPLAUSE Well, The Government's Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproduction is suggesting egg donors receive compensation in the range of $1000 to $3000. It says more should be done to meet the expenses of women who act as surrogates. Well, up next ` Whangamata's surfing teen star. You heart is pumping; your adrenalin's going; you're excited. You stand up; you jump up for that wave. It's such a buzz; 'Oh, I want another one now.' WATER BUBBLES Welcome back. She was just 6 years old, but Ella Williams can remember the day clear as a bell ` the morning she got up and announced, 'I'm going to be a world champion surfer.' She wrote it on her bedroom wall, then she read it out to herself every day for years, until one day, that dream came true. Ian Sinclair with NZ's newest rising star. LAID-BACK GUITAR MUSIC It's... an amazing feeling. It's a feeling that probably only a surfer knows. HEAVY ROCK MUSIC Your heart is pumping; your adrenalin's going; you're excited. And you stand up; you jump up for that wave. Welcome aboard with Ella Williams. You get up that big wave that you've kind of been scared of for a long time, and you get it ` it's such a buzz. It's, like, 'Oh my God! I did do that.' You're kind of like, 'I want another one now. I want another one!' And what Ella wants, she seems to get. Through sheer pluck, this 19-year-old is already strutting the red carpet as world female junior champion. LIVELY MUSIC But Ella gives much of the credit of her own surfer's paradise ` Whangamata. From the welcome sign... Pretty stoked that they put it there. (LAUGHS) Very lucky. ...to the welcome home ` I'm so grateful, and I'm so excited. This is crazy! (LAUGHS) this Coromandel town is proud to own her. And why not? Because Whangamata is where Ella's ride to the top began. Can you remember a life without surfing? > Can you remember a life without surfing? > (LAUGHS) No. (LAUGHS) No, honestly, I can say, um, no. I can't remember. From the day I can remember, I've surfed and always been in the water and always loved it, so, yeah. It's pretty awesome. It's pretty awesome. A bit like a fish. > It's pretty awesome. A bit like a fish. > Yeah. (LAUGHS) That's what, um,... That's what my mum calls me. Should have been born in the water. ETHEREAL MUSIC Ella may not have been born a fish, but she was almost certainly born to surf. We all heard that saying, 'Passion for the ocean', and the beach and surfing, and it just is an amazing feeling when you're in the water. Thanks to surfie mum Janine and surfie dad Dean, Ella's course was set way before she was born. DEAN: We all saw a magazine, saw some surfers in it, and it was like, 'We're going surfing.' And is that why you came here to Whangamata? Well, yeah, I suppose so. The Bar is a world-class wave. Um... That` That is the reason for being here. And so it's, like, a perfect wave. Um, and when it's on, it's really on. And I'm pretty lucky to have that in my back doorstep. Plus they've got a business. Yeah. It's crazy, eh? Surprise, surprise ` it's a surfing shop; Cool. That's all yours. Cool. That's all yours. Thanks very much. Cool. That's all yours. Thanks very much. Thank you. See ya. a shop that provided the money to raise a couple of surfers ` Ella and brother Braedon. So, Ella, can you take me back to your earliest memory of surfing? Yeah. When I was 4 years old, and I was pretty much jumping up, holding on to the back of their hair, holding on for life going, 'Oh, I hope I don't fall off. I hope I don't fall off.' Um, but, yeah, it was` it was so awesome. I have that vivid memory. And, um, it's stuck with me till the day` now. Started on a bodyboard, and then it was like, 'We'll jump on the surfboard.' Her dream to be a world champion and to be famous has been there since she was little. Her bedroom wall is covered in pledges. READS: Believe in my dream always. You can achieve anything you believe you can. It's mind over matter. At just 6 years old, she wrote that first life-changing declaration. 'One day, I will be world champion.' So every time I woke up in the morning, I'd see it, and I'll try to visualise it. I think if you believe big things, dream big things, you can achieve big things. EXCITING, UPBEAT MUSIC Florianopolis, Brazil, where sand, surf and a bout for the world title made it a mecca for 23 million surfer worldwide. And at the epicentre is Ella, though that wasn't the plan. Unfortunately, a girl had to pull out because she was injured, so I was next on the ratings to get into the competition. So in came the urgent request ` can she make it to the junior world champs? And I was, like, 'Yes, please. I will take that ticket.' (LAUGHS) Surfing is a $7 billion-a-year industry. Everyone has a lot of support and, um, obviously, you know, maybe financially better off. So, you know, they've got trainers and` personal trainers, nutritionists, coaches, filmers. They've got a whole set of people, which is great. Um, I was` you know, me and my mum just turned up. Yeah, that` that was amazing. Um... You know, the whole time we were in Brazil, we just kept pinching ourselves that she was getting through the heats. Um, it was all just such a bonus to be there, and we just felt so excited to be there with that calibre of surfing, you know? It was so special. ETHEREAL MUSIC All of a sudden, this wave came, and I got it all the way through. It was a left-hander. Got on the jet ski, hopped back out, and I got another one, so I got two sets. DISTANT CHEERING You know, it felt like it was all worth it ` all that hard work, hard training and, um, and close calls. It was my turn now. (LAUGHS) Surfers Paradise, Queensland ` scene of the world's biggest surf awards. GROOVY BEACH MUSIC The ASP Awards have been dubbed the Oscars of surfing, where the superstars of the sport get to shine. And here for the first time, Ella Williams will be honoured among them. GROOVY MUSIC Hi, Ella. Hi, Ella. Hello. Hi. Good evening. Hi, Ella. Hello. Hi. Good evening. Good evening. You look fantastic. This is the moment Ella has dreamed of since she was 6. I'd just like to say a huge thank you to my family for supporting me; all you surfers that I look up to, and I learn so much from you guys. So, yeah,... so grateful. Thank you. APPLAUSE To be here amongst all these great athletes is` it's just an awesome occasion, so we're very proud. # You just can't be hanging on... # The next goal for Ella is pro surfing, and already she's caught the eye of the seasoned champs. She has a spark, and she has confidence. She's very` I can see it in her surfing. She's, uh,... She's assertive, and she's determined to win, basically. So that's what it takes to be a champion, and she has that. And Ella plans to be around for a while. I'd love to win the Open world title. Um, not just once, not just twice, but probably five, six times. A lot of times. How far off do you think your bid for the pro world title will be? How far off do you think your bid for the pro world title will be? Give me... three years. So it's not a case of if but when. > So it's not a case of if but when. > But when. Definitely. It's a case of when. (LAUGHS) I love that. Good luck, Ella. That's it. Thanks for joining us tonight. Check us out on Facebook. Ka kite i a koe a tera wiki. See you next week. Po marie.