The issue of surrogacy has been in the news recently due to allegations that an Australian couple rejected a baby boy born in Thailand under a commercial surrogacy arrangement. The baby\u2019s twin sister was accepted but the boy was not as he has Down\u2019s syndrome.<\/p>\n
The law governing surrogacy in England and Wales is the Surrogacy Arrangements Act 1985 and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008<\/p>\n
Commercial surrogacy arrangements are not permitted under English law. A surrogate mother can receive only \u2018reasonable expenses\u2019.<\/p>\n
There are two types of surrogacy. The first is \u2018traditional\u2019 or \u2018genetic\u2019 surrogacy in which the sperm of the intended father is used to fertilise the surrogate mother\u2019s own egg, this can be with or without using a fertility clinic. The second is where IVF is used so that an embryo is created using the egg and the sperm from the intended parents which is then placed in the surrogate mother\u2019s womb. This is called either \u2018host\u2019 or gestational\u2019 surrogacy.<\/p>\n
In the UK the birth mother is the legal mother, regardless of her biological relationship to the child. Her husband or civil partner is deemed to be the child\u2019s second parent. The only exception to this is if the husband or civil partner can show that they did not consent to the surrogacy arrangement.<\/p>\n
This means that potentially the surrogate mother or her partner can change their minds after the baby is born, regardless of any expenses which have been paid.<\/p>\n
Once the baby is six weeks old the intended parents need to apply to the court for a \u2018Parental Order\u2019. This must be done before the baby is 6 months old. One or both of the intended parents must be a biological parent and the application has to be made by both parents. They have to be married, in a civil partnership or in an enduring family relationship. An intended parent alone cannot apply for a Parental Order.<\/p>\n
Provided that all the parties agree and the court is satisfied that a Parental Order is in the child\u2019s best interests this will be granted in favour of the intended parents. The Parental Order extinguishes all the rights of the surrogate parents and the intended parents become the legal parents.<\/p>\n
The number of registered surrogacy cases in the UK was just over 200 in 2013 mainly due to a lack of potential surrogates. Consequently couples are looking more and more to surrogacy arrangements abroad.\u00a0 This brings further complications as the law on surrogacy and immigration must be complied with both in the foreign jurisdiction and the UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The issue of surrogacy has been in the news recently due to allegations that an Australian couple rejected a baby boy born in Thailand under a commercial surrogacy arrangement. The baby\u2019s twin sister was accepted but the boy was not as he has Down\u2019s syndrome. The law governing surrogacy in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[331,341],"tags":[521,735,737,1373],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-children-2","category-familylaw","tag-children","tag-family-2","tag-family-court","tag-surrogacy"],"yoast_head":"\n