UK surrogacy laws were created over 40 years ago and were designed to provide a legal framework to protect the welfare of all the parties involved in a surrogacy arrangement.
While the process mostly works, a new report by SurrogacyUK, written by Loughborough law professor Kirsty Horsey, highlights that the laws that control it are now outdated and need to be updated.
Issues include naming the surrogate as the legal mother when the child is born, forcing the parties to go to court after the birth for a parental order and confusion over the difference between commercial surrogacy (which is not allowed in the UK) and paying expenses to the surrogate.
The consequences of the outdated rules are that some intended parents are going abroad to access surrogacy, which they perceive to be more certain. But, as some recent cases show, overseas surrogacy arrangements can cost significantly more, involve extra legal problems and risk exploitation of both surrogates and intended parents.
Professor Horsey, of Loughborough Law, said: “The world has changed a lot since the law was first introduced. Families now come in many different shapes, more people use surrogacy, and same-sex couples are much more likely to build families this way.
“But the law has not kept up, because the rules are confusing and outdated, some families feel pushed to go to other countries, which can be risky and expensive.
“What this report shows is what actually happens in most domestic surrogacy arrangements, not the myths people sometimes hear, or overhyped stories about when surrogacy goes wrong.
“Most surrogacy arrangements go well and there is a great deal of ongoing contact between surrogate-born children, their parents and surrogates.
“The biggest problem is the law. Right now, when a baby is born through surrogacy, the law says the intended parents are not the parents at the outset, even when everyone agrees they should raise the child.
“That can be stressful and frightening for families.
“Most surrogates believe the legal parents should be the people who planned to care for the child.
“And while surrogates are paid back for expenses connected to the surrogacy, this is not about selling babies. Clearer, modern laws would make surrogacy safer and fairer for everyone.”
The report makes a number of recommendations.
- Make intended parents the legal parents from birth when safeguards are met
- Create a clear, regulated pathway to parenthood before birth
- Reduce the need for families to go to court after a baby is born
- Keep surrogacy non-commercial while ensuring surrogates are not left out of pocket
- Make rules about expenses clearer and less stressful
- Support domestic surrogacy through regulated, non-profit organisations
- Improve data collection and research on surrogacy
- Listen to the experiences of surrogates, parents and children
- Create a surrogacy Register so people can access information about their origins
- Bring the Law Commissions’ proposed Surrogacy Bill to Parliament without delay
To read more about the report visit the SurrogacyUK website.
ENDS