New laws that will decriminalise altruistic surrogacy in Queensland will be introduced to parliament on Wednesday.
Premier Anna Bligh said the government this week hoped to finally 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 'still illegal'
Commercial surrogacy will remain illegal under the bill.
Heated debate is expected, with the opposition hoping to restrict access for same-sex couples.
A Christian lobby group says surrogacy should be a last resort for infertile married couples, not a solution for gay and lesbian couples who want kids.
The Australian Christian Lobby has called on Queensland MPs to amend or reject the new bill.
Children 'are not pets'
The ACL says children are not pets and should not simply be given to anyone who wants one.
ACL managing director Jim Wallace says the surrogacy bill should have been directed at permitting surrogacy as a last resort for infertile married couples.
Instead it represents a piece of radical social engineering which will alter the natural make-up of the family by permitting single adults and same-sex couples to have children via surrogacy, he said.
'Experimenting with children's lives'
"The Bligh government knocked back same-sex adoption, but is now going against the logic in that decision by creating situations where a surrogate child could end up with two mummies or two daddies or even just one parent - right from birth," Mr Wallace said in a statement on Tuesday.
"This is experimenting with children's lives and at this stage they have no way of really knowing just how devastating the effects on the children will be, or the extent of identity confusion that will result.
"We've already had to make amends to a Stolen Generation and a Forgotten Generation - is this the next one?"
'Against nature'
He said the state had a moral duty to act in the best interest of all children.
"The state should not be accommodating the desires of single men, single women, two men or two women to do what is not possible in nature - that is to have babies," he said.
"We urge all Queensland parliamentarians to consider the needs of children and reject this bill or at the very least to split the bill so that MPs can have a true conscience vote on the separate issue of whether to permit single people and same-sex couples to have children via surrogacy."
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