Leading fertility lawyer says UK surrogacy laws must be reformed urgently

Britain’s surrogacy laws are no longer good enough and must be reformed urgently to stop court battles wrecking people’s lives, a leading fertility lawyer has said. Her comments follow a legal ruling where a woman who had a baby with a gay couple but then refused them access was ordered to hand her one-year-old daughter over to the men. The judge ruled in favour of the men after concluding it would in the best interests of the girl that she grow up with her father and his partner. The case has reopened the debate around surrogacy in the UK, where a lack of regulation means that disputes between parents and surrogates often end up in the courts. Natalie Gamble, one of the UK’s leading fertility lawyers, said: “The law urgently needs changing. The laws in place were written in the 1980s and the world has moved on. I don’t think they were ever properly thought through. “The situation around UK-based surrogacy is driving thousands of parents overseas every year and creating new issues such as children born to UK parents being stuck abroad. What we urgently need is a proper structure.” Peter Morris, a partner and family law specialist at Irwin Mitchell, said: “The key issue raised by this case is that the UK lacks a clear, comprehensive legal framework to cover the concept of surrogacy. “A number of countries, including the US, have a proper process that those involved in surrogacy must undertake. Such systems would see all of those involved make a clear agreement regarding the future of the child.” In the latest case, the woman, identified only as S, said she had entered into an agreement, which would see her acting as the “main parent and carer”. The child’s genetic father, known as H, disputed this, saying the agreement was that he and his male partner, known as B, would “co-parent” the girl, with the woman continuing to “play a role”. The judge, Ms Justice Russell, ruled in favour of the father at the High Court. Under UK law, surrogates are the legal mother of any child they carry, even if they are not genetically related, unless they sign a parental order after they give birth transferring their rights to the intended parents. Article: 10th May 2015 www.independent.co.uk

New Foreign office guidance for surrogacy arrangements

The new guidance (available at www.gov.uk) sets out the rules on British nationality and immigration, and gives clearer guidance on the procedures parents need to follow to bring a child born through surrogacy abroad home to the UK. In practice, we know on the ground that parents can wait up to 5 months to get the paperwork they need to travel back to the UK after a child is born as a result of an international surrogacy arrangement, so careful planning is key. The guidance also highlights the need for parents to look beyond the immediate issue of getting home and ensure they do not miss the strict six month deadline for applying to the family court to become the legal parents in the UK. UK law does not recognise foreign birth certificates in surrogacy cases, and without a parental order granted by the UK court the foreign surrogate and her husband remain the legal parents in the UK. Last year High Court Judge Mrs Justice Theis said: ‘The message needs to go out loud and clear to encourage parental order applications to be made in respect of children born as a result of international surrogacy arrangements, and for them to be made promptly’. The FCO is urging parents to get legal advice before embarking on international surrogacy. At NGA and Brilliant Beginnings, we are passionate about helping parents planning overseas surrogacy arrangements to get the right information at the outset. Since representing the first parents have an international surrogacy arrangement ratified by the UK court in 2008, we have worked with hundreds of families planning overseas surrogacy arrangements. In 2013, 38% of our new international surrogacy cases involved India, 25% the USA and 7% the Ukraine. There is more information on NatalieGambleAssociate's website about international surrogacy law and about UK immigration and nationality. Article: www.nataliegambleassociates.co.uk 11th February 2014 Read more about Fertility Law at www.prideangel.com

New surrogacy legislation in the UK came into force this week

The HFEA’s new Code of Practice, which comes into force this week, contains new guidance for UK fertility clinics dealing with surrogacy cases. The changes affect how clinics deal with the forms which allocate legal parenthood in surrogacy cases. Cases where the surrogate is married or in a civil partnership If the surrogate is married or in a civil partnership, she and her husband (or civil partner) will be the legal parents of the child. There may be some rare cases in which the surrogate’s spouse does not consent to the arrangement as a question of fact (for example if the couple are separated). However, in the vast majority of cases a surrogate’s spouse cannot simply opt out of becoming a legal parent by signing a withdrawal of consent form. The HFEA gives new guidance making this clear, and instructions to clinics about how the paperwork should be completed. Cases where the surrogate is not married If the surrogate is legally single (or if her spouse genuinely does not consent), there is new guidance on what clinics should do. The HFEA no longer says that in these circumstances the child has no second legal parent. Instead, the new rules provide that there are choices to be made as to who can be named on the child’s first birth certificate with the surrogate mother (something which brings the HFEA guidance into line with the approach of the family courts and register offices). In practice, there are three options and clinics will need to consider the alternatives carefully with patients before treatment proceeds: 1) Do nothing – the intended (biological) father will be the legal father and can be named on the birth certificate with the surrogate. No parenthood election forms need be signed. 2) Nominate the intended mother as the other parent. The clinic will need to ensure that the new the parenthood election forms for surrogacy (Forms SWP and SPP) are signed by both women before conception. This enables the two women to be named on the birth certificate together when the child is born. 3) Nominate a non-biological father as the father (e.g. the other dad in a gay couple or, probably more rarely, an intended father in a case where a couple is conceiving with the intended mother’s eggs and donor sperm). The clinic will need to ensure the parenthood election forms (SWP and SPP) are signed by the nominated non-biological father and the surrogate mother before conception. The non-biological dad can then be registered on the birth certificate with the surrogate. The parenthood election forms are critical documents which patients will need when they go and register their child’s birth, so it is important that licensed centres provide patients with a copy and keep a copy on file. They must be signed before artificial insemination or embryo transfer to be legally effective. Intended parents will still need to apply for a parental order after their child is born to secure their joint parentage and to extinguish their surrogate’s legal responsibilites. This will, in the long run, give the intended parents a birth certificate naming them both as the parents - the new HFEA rules only deal with the interim position before this process is complete. It is therefore also important that licensed centres are familiar with parental orders, or otherwise make sure their patients have legal advice. There is more information and FAQs from the HFEA here and more information about legal parenthood after surrogacy on our website. We have assisted the HFEA with its new guidance, and have worked with hundreds of families created through surrogacy. We can offer training to licensed centres, and advice and support to families with navigating these new rules. Gay? looking for an egg donor or co-parent? register for free at www.prideangel.com

Women risk surrogacy exploitation due to lack of legislation

Consultant obstetricians who reviewed current practice in UK hospitals said the lack of rules put mothers and children at risk. Celia Burrell, consultant obstetrician at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospital NHS Trust said: “We are calling for additional legislation and guidelines to prevent women and babies being exploited, provide safeguards for children and guide professionals. The review published in the The Obstetrician and Gynaecologist said that staff should consult hospital lawyers and risk management teams before taking a decision to discharge a baby separately from the mother who gave birth to the child. Researchers said they expected the number to increase, following laws introduced in 2010 which give same sex and unmarried couples the same legal rights as married hetrosexual couples to apply for parental orders, after a child is born. Dr Burrell said current laws were “precarious”, because legislation varies so much around the world. Last month, a new precedent was set in the Republic of Ireland when the genetic mother was put on the child’s birth certificate. In 2011, a surrogate mother in the UK won the legal right to keep her child after learning that the would-be parents were violent. In March, a surrogate mother in the United States fled across the country to give birth and save her child after the parents to be wanted to have the child aborted because disabilities had been found. Researchers said there are currently no UK guidelines providing advice for surrogates, would-be parents or healthcare professionals, nor is data collected to establish how common the practice is. Researchers said the lack of guidance left healthcare professionals struggling with many ethical and legal dilemmas. Since Britain’s first official surrogate birth, in 1985, laws have limited payments to cover only what is described as “reasonable expenses”, such as loss of income. Estimates suggest that, since then about 800 children have been born in this country of such arrangements, with “expenses” payments averaging about £15,000. Exact figures are unknown, because many arrangements proceed without any medical or legal input. In 2011, a British judge allowed a couple to keep their child, despite the fact that they made higher payments to a couple in the United States, where there is no ceiling on amounts. In making the ruling, he went further, saying that the welfare of the child was the paramount consideration, and future cases would be rejected only in the “clearest case of the abuse of public policy”. Article: 19th April 2013 www.telegraph.co.uk Read more about surrogacy at www.prideangel.com

Woman 58 acts as surrogate to her own daughter

A woman in her 50s will give birth to her own children after becoming a surrogate mother for her infertile daughter. Cathy Donnelly, 58, is six months pregnant and will welcome her seventh grandchild into the world when she gives birth to her - before daughter Shannon Fischer raises the baby. Mrs Fischer and her husband Jamie had been trying for two years when they discovered they couldn’t conceive due to scarring in her uterus. So Mrs Donnelly mother of three and a grandmother of six, volunteered to be a surrogate mother for her daughter. Mrs Fischer said: 'The day I came home from my surgery mum said "I'll do it". She didn't hesitate.' Mrs Donnelly, from London in Ontario, Canada, said: 'I felt bad for them - I just thought what’s nine months of my life? They are going to have a child for the rest of theirs? It's not like I'm busy doing anything.' He said: 'Usually it’s a close friend or a sister that acts as the gestational carrier - women who are over 45-years-old are not normally in good enough health. 'Pregnancy for older women is much riskier. The most common complications are high blood pressure, gestational diabetes and premature child birth.' But they were risks Mrs Donnelly was willing to accept and while she admits her pregnancy hasn’t been easy, she has had no complications so far. 'It was long process and involved a heavy dose of fertility drugs for both of us but in the end it all paid off. 'I was standing in line for a coffee when I got a call from my doctor confirming I was pregnant. I was just bawling - people must have thought someone close to me died. 'But it has been challenging. Now I’m showing I make sure people aren’t staring or looking at me because they’re probably thinking ‘look at that old lady.' Mrs Donnelly said she did question whether she was doing the right thing and if everything would work out okay until she started to feel the baby move. Now her only concerns are about how she will feel once she has given birth. 'I don't know if I'll feel like I've lost her, I don't know how I'm going to feel,' Mrs Donnelly said. Shannon plans to name her daughter Zoey Hope Catherine after her mother. And for her the whole experience has made her cherish their mother-daughter relationship even more. She said: 'It just changes your relationship 360 degrees. We were close before but it’s just on a whole new level. I want to be like she is to my own daughter, that caring and willing to do stuff for her. Article: 16th November 2012 www.dailymail.co.uk

Maternity leave to be granted for parents through Surrogacy

We are pleased to say that the government announced yesterday that they would be introducing adoption leave (equivalent to maternity leave) rights for parents through surrogacy. After campaigning for more than five years, Natalie Gamble Associates are thrilled ‘Some days I feel very proud of what we do here, and today is one of those days’ Until now, parents whose biological child is carried by another woman have had no rights to time off work when their new baby arrives, unlike parents who give birth or who adopt a child. This has been grossly unfair, and resulted in parents through surrogacy having to quit their jobs or go back to work if their employer does not (or cannot) give leave on a discretionary basis. The new rights will be introduced as part of the government’s maternity leave and adoption leave reforms, expected to come into force in 2015. Although the full detail has yet to be confirmed, we know that parents through surrogacy will be entitled to two antenatal appointments during the pregnancy, and adoption leave after the birth. This will be available to all couples eligible to apply for a parental order, including heterosexual parents and gay dads. Surrogate mothers will also retain their right to maternity leave to recover from giving birth. More information is available in the government’s response to the consultation on modern workplaces which says: We propose that intended parents in surrogacy cases who satisfy the criteria for a Parental Order and intend to apply, or have applied, to a court for a Parental Order will be entitled to leave and pay on the same basis as adopters who are eligible for statutory adoption leave and pay, subject to the qualifying conditions and evidential requirements. In addition, both intended parents will be entitled to take unpaid time off to attend two antenatal appointments with the surrogate mother carrying their child. What is so exciting about the change, as well as the practical legal rights it will introduce for new parents, is that this is the very first time in UK legal history that parents through surrogacy have been recognised as having any rights in advance of the birth of their child. This is a very significant recognition that surrogacy is real and here to stay, and hopefully a first step towards wider reform of our surrogacy laws. Read more information about surrogacy law and more about Natalie Gamble Associates' campaigning work. Article: 15th November 2012 www.nataliegambleassociates.co.uk

Single man becomes a Dad through Surrogacy in UK

Yesterday's ITV Daybreak featured Kyle Casson, a single dad who Natalie Gamble Associates are proud to be working with on his journey to become the first single parent through surrogacy in the UK. Well done to Kyle for speaking out so bravely, and for being such a great a champion for solo dads. Kyle spoke characterically warmly about his plans to be a father. He has always wanted children, and wants to do it in his twenties (with active grandparents) rather than waiting for a partner who may not come along. He has planned things carefully, is financially secure, has the enthusiastic support of his family, and has a surrogate who wants to help him. You can see Kyle talking about his story on ITV Daybreak here. So what does the law say? The law in the UK has never made it illegal to enter into a surrogacy arrangement as a single father. But it doesn’t make it easy either. Most parents through surrogacy (including gay dads and unmarried couples) can apply for a ‘parental order’ after their child is born. This is an order made by the family court which gives the intended parents a new birth certificate and extinguishes the responsibilities of the surrogate mother. Single parents are not, however, eligible to apply. This means it is perfectly legal for Kyle to have a child through surrogacy in the UK, but the normal solution for families created through surrogacy (designed to give lifelong security and certainty for the child) is not available. He will have to get creative with using law designed for other purposes to secure his family and resolve the position of his surrogate – adoption being the best alternative to a parental order if the family court will agree to help. Natalie Gamble Associates (NGA) call to action On behalf of Kyle and the increasing numbers of solo prospective dads NGA are advising (some going abroad for surrogacy, others entering into co-parenting arrangements. NGA call for parental orders to be made available to solo parents. The law has already been extended, in 2008, to allow gay dads and unmarried couples to apply, and it is now time to allow single parents to apply too. This would bring the law into line with adoption law, which allows single parents to become adopters, and with reproductive law for women which was specifically amended in 2008 to allow solo mums to conceive through donor insemination. NGA frequently see heartbreaking cases caused by the denial of surrogacy to single parents. A change to the law would benefit not only prospective solo dads like Kyle, but also single women who have survived cancer and need the help of a surrogate to carry their child, and widowed fathers who want to use embryos in storage, just as widowed mothers are able to do. And what do we say to people (like the lady on Daybreak with Kyle this morning) who say that such solo parents who want to have children are selfish? Well, wanting to be a parent is something most human beings experience, so it comes down to whether children suffer harm if raised without a mother and a father. This is an old question for non-traditional families, and the answer (backed by long research, including by the Centre for Family Research at Cambridge University) is that children in deliberately created non-traditional families (including solo parent families) have good outcomes, and are in a very different position from children whose parents have separated. It is the quality of the relationships which matters, and not the gender or number of the parents. Article source: 5th November 2012 www.nataliegambleassociates.co.uk

Surrogacy in India - why the UK law needs to change

Indian surrogacy is a hot media topic, with several stories over the past week about couples being stuck in India waiting for British passports for their biological children. As far as we are concerned, this isn’t really news – it is the shared experience of every British parent who has had a child through surrogacy in India, and something we deal with on a daily basis. A surrogacy industry has grown rapidly in India over the past few years, attracting Western intended parents with limited surrogacy options at home. Although the Indian parliament is considering introducing Indian surrogacy laws (one feature of the proposed Bill being to restrict surrogacy for foreign parents), there is widespread doubt about when or if these laws will ever be passed. With no law to regulate Indian surrogacy as things stand, a profitable surrogacy market has sprung up. Clinics rely on Indian contract law to draw up binding agreements between surrogates and intended parents, and registrars facilitate naming intended parents on Indian birth certificates. All together, it adds up to an affordable but unregulated way of having a child for infertile and gay couples. But Indian surrogacy is not as simple as it seems for British intended parents. UK law says that the surrogate is the mother of the child and, if she is married, her husband is the father, and these rules apply no matter where in the world the child is conceived. In practice this means that getting named on an Indian birth certificate is false comfort, since the Indian birth certificate will not be recognised for any UK legal purposes. Getting home is just the first hurdle. Most children born to British parents through surrogacy in India are born ‘stateless’ – they have no nationality anywhere in the world – because of the mismatched laws on parenthood. British parents have to apply to the Home Office for their child to be registered as a British citizen on a discretionary basis. Since the process takes many months, parents must routinely be prepared for a long stay in a foreign country with their newborn child. ....Read more of this article Article: 7th June by Natalie Gamble Associates

Surrogacy in India - what's the law for parents from the UK?

Following prominent Indian surrogacy stories in the Telegraph and Evening Standard, Natalie was interviewed on BBC Radio this afternoon to explain the law. In the absence of regulation, a commercial surrogacy industry in India has boomed over the last few years, with many Indian fertility clinics now offering surrogacy packages to foreign intended parents at a cost of around £20,000. Indian law allows intended parents to enter into a binding contract with a surrogate mother, and Indian officials register the intended parents on the Indian birth certificate. But the law is not as simple as it seems if you are a British parent. For UK legal purposes, the parents of a child born through surrogacy are the surrogate mother and, if she is married, her husband. Regardless of what the Indian birth certificate says, you will not be recognised as parents and this means that your child may well be born ’stateless’ without any right to a passport anywhere in the world. You will also have no status as the parents of your child when you come back to the UK. There are solutions – a discretionary application to the British High Commission to give a British passport, and an application to the family court for a parental order which ultimately gives a British birth certificate. However, it is important to be well prepared, and to be very careful about the ethics and safety of what you are doing, given the lack of regulation in India. Despite the sudden media coverage, none of these issues are new. In a landmark case Re X and Y in 2008, the High Court warned of the dangers of international surrogacy after twins born through a Ukrainian surrogacy arrangement were born ‘marooned stateless and parentless’ by the conflict between UK and Ukrainian law. This was the very first UK case to ratify a foreign surrogacy arrangement, and it has been followed by many others over the past four years. Exactly the same issues apply in Indian surrogacy cases, of which we have dealt with many. No parental orders have yet been refused, although the court does look at every situation carefully to ensure there is no exploitation and to protect the welfare of the child. You can find out more from our website about international surrogacy law

UK High Court Judge endorses International Surrogacy

Sir Nicholas Wall, the President of the High Court Family Division, has made public his decision to give parenthood to the British parents of twins born through surrogacy in India. The President said the issues were of “considerable public importance” and he wished to endorse the previous judgments of Mr Justice Hedley in other similar cases.

The decision, from one of the UK’s most senior family judges, represents a bolstering of the UK court’s position on international surrogacy: that although commercially organised surrogacy is not yet permitted in the UK, British parents can be awarded parenthood if they go abroad and pay a foreign surrogate mother more than her ‘reasonable expenses’. Sir Nicholas Wall made clear that the court’s paramount consideration is the child’s welfare, and that a birth certificate will be given as long as there has been no exploitation and the parents are not circumventing child protection laws in the UK.

In this particular case, two Indian surrogate mothers (carrying embryos created with the intended father’s sperm and eggs from the same anonymous donor) gave birth to a boy and a girl within a few days of each other, following a surrogacy arrangement commissioned by a British couple. A total of some £27,000 was paid to the Indian clinic. The court was ultimately satisfied that the parents were “entirely genuine and straightforward” and that “it is plainly in the interests of these two children that they should brought up by Mr and Mrs A as their parents”.

The case follows similar decisions by Mr Justice Hedley in the cases of Re X and Y (2008) in which British parents paid £23,000 to a Ukrainian surrogate mother, Re S (2009) involving a Californian surrogacy arrangement, Re L (2010) involving a surrogate mother based in Illinois and Re IJ (2011) involving a Ukrainian surrogacy.

Article: 13th December 2011 www.nataliegambleassociates.co.uk

Surrogate mother abandoned with twins by intended couple

Cathleen Hachey’s first try as a surrogate mother took a heartbreaking turn when she was abandoned via text message last spring, 27 weeks into the pregnancy she’d initiated to help another couple start a family.
The young New Brunswick stay-at-home mom was carrying twins for a British couple. But three months before Hachey’s due date, the couple declared their marriage had ended and they would not be coming for the babies.

Hachey, 20, who was already the mother of a 1- and 2-year-old, delivered the twins — a boy and a girl — on June 28. She was able to find the twins an adoptive home, but experts in the field say the episode is a lesson on the need for better safeguards for both surrogate mothers and the intended parents.

Without a lawyer or a fertility doctor to advise her, Hachey was left vulnerable and outside Canada’s fertility laws. “Here’s a lovely, trusting young woman who should have taken care of herself,” says Sherry Levitan, a Toronto-based fertility lawyer. “The law is there for a reason.”

Hachey, who lives in Bathurst, N.B., tried to do what experts say all surrogate mothers should do before she agreed to carry a child for the couple in Hertfordshire, England, whom she met through the website Surrogate Mothers Online.

She spent about six months getting to know them, speaking with them daily by phone. She met the pair when they flew to New Brunswick in November. The three signed a surrogacy contract prepared by the couple that declared them the child’s legal parents and granted Hachey $200 per month for expenses related to her pregnancy.

The trio decided Hachey would be a “traditional” surrogate: she would use her own egg and the husband’s sperm to conceive the child because the wife suffered from polycystic ovarian syndrome and was unable to conceive or carry a baby.

Surrogacy advocates frown upon this approach, and few fertility clinics will agree to inseminate women who choose it. So Hachey performed an “at home” insemination using a medical syringe and semen from a cup.

“Traditional surrogacy is too fraught with issues,” says Toronto fertility lawyer Nancy Lam. The child is genetically connected to the surrogate, unlike in a much more common “gestational” surrogacy, in which the surrogate mother carries a baby conceived with a donated egg and has no genetic connection to the child she delivers.

The traditional surrogacy complicated Hachey’s situation, leaving her even more vulnerable when the couple backed out 27 weeks into her pregnancy. The intended mother sent Hachey a text message stating the couple had separated and she wouldn’t be taking the unborn boy and girl because she felt that as a single mother she couldn’t care for twins.

“It said she mentally couldn’t handle herself right now,” Hachey recalls, “so she didn’t think she can handle two other human beings.” The expectant mother was stunned: “They were my biological children so they were my biological problem.”

With the help of a friend, Hachey did find a Nova Scotia couple who had been waiting several years to adopt and were overjoyed to take the twins. “It was hard,” she says. “If I was in a better position, I would have kept them.”

But she had to care for her two children alone because her fiancé left 18 weeks into her surrogate pregnancy. Faced with the prospect of sole breadwinner for a family of four, he said he couldn’t cope with the financial stress. They have since reunited.

The Star was not able to reach the intended parents in England.
To read more go to http://bit.ly/oZs986

Your surrogate will keep the baby, won't she?

So many clients tell us that this is the question they are asked when they tell their friends – and even their fertility doctors – that they are considering surrogacy. Is it true? Are surrogacy arrangements in the UK very risky, with the surrogate mother holding all the cards and having an absolute right to keep the baby? Do those who embark on surrogacy arrangements frequently end up with the surrogate mother keeping the child in practice?
It is certainly a widespread belief, and one which in the globalised world is an important factor which drives people abroad to surrogacy destinations like the USA, the Ukraine and India, where surrogacy arrangements are legally enforceable.

But the reality is that this is in fact incredibly rare in practice. To date, there have been only two reported cases in UK legal history of the court having to arbitrate between the intended parents and a surrogate mother where a surrogacy agreement has broken down. In only one of these cases was the surrogate allowed to keep the baby, since the UK courts (far from being obliged to uphold the status of the surrogate mother) in fact have flexible powers to determine what is in the child’s best interests where something does go wrong.

So why do surrogacy arrangements in the UK so rarely go wrong? Our experience of working with families in these situations tells us that it is because surrogacy is not entered into by parents or surrogates lightly, but with the benefit of enormous care, thought and respect. Often with the help and support of long established and experienced agencies like Surrogacy UK and COTS, we find that parents and surrogates invest heavily in building a strong foundation to their relationship, and treat it with significant value.

The reality of surrogacy in the UK is that arrangements far more often end up in a lifelong friendships than in custody disputes

Surrogacy law in the UK - Is change overdue?

International and UK regulations have simply not kept up with the reality of surrogacy
Determining parenthood is a complex business. When paternity tests revealed that the child Stephen Quinn had raised as his own was in fact the biological offspring of David Blunkett, Quinn attracted palpable sympathy with his declaration: "I will not draw a distinction between biological and non-biological – we are not buying Persil or Daz."

But the complexity of determining paternity pales in comparison to the question of maternity. In the rapidly expanding world of surrogacy births, up to three women can have competing claims to be mother of a newborn child: the birth mother, the egg donor, and the intended parent (or "commissioning mother", as she is prosaically called). The one thing upon which the wildly opposed different groups agree is the fact that the courts – increasingly called on when surrogacy agreements break down – do not have the right tools to resolve them.

The most recent example came in a surrogacy dispute that was decided last month in Birmingham county court. A couple who could not have children had met a surrogate mother in an internet chatroom. She was inseminated with the man's sperm and agreed to hand over the child after birth. In a not uncommon outcome for informal surrogacy agreements, she changed her mind during the course of the pregnancy as her attachment to the child grew.

And in another fact not unrepresentative of wider trends, the case was complicated by the fact that both the would-be parents and the surrogate were avid users of surrogacy websites and chat-rooms. The would-be parents had met another woman, alleged to be a prostitute, on a surrogacy website and allowed her to stay in their home. On her part, the surrogate had adopted a false persona online and deceived the couple to elicit information about them. Both incidents, the judge said, raised questions about the sound judgment of each side, a particular matter of concern for a court trying to determine which side would be more likely to provide the atmosphere of safety, love and guidance needed to raise a child.

It's hard to criticise the findings of the judge, Sir Jonathan Baker, in this case: he allowed the child to stay with the surrogate, finding separation from the woman who was still breastfeeding her to be the greater measure of harm. His view reflects the legal position in the UK, that "mother" is the label given to any woman who gives birth to a child, whether or not she is a genetic relation.

To read more go to http://bit.ly/gWhAAd

Surrogate mother allowed to keep her baby

A surrogate mother who had a baby girl for a couple but changed her mind about handing her over is allowed to keep her, a judge has ruled.
The welfare of the six-month-old child, known only as T, "requires her to remain with her mother", said Mr Justice Baker, giving reasons yesterday for a decision he made after a hearing in Birmingham last month.

He said: "In my judgment, there is a clear attachment between mother and daughter. To remove her from her mother's care would cause a measure of harm. It is the mother who, I find, is better able to meet T's needs, in particular her emotional needs."

The judge said the risks of entering into a surrogacy agreement are "very considerable".

He added: "In particular, the natural process of carrying and giving birth to a baby creates an attachment which may be so strong that the surrogate mother finds herself unable to give up the child."

He said the mother met the couple, Mr and Mrs W, over the internet in 2009 and agreed informally that the mother would be inseminated by Mr W, and hand the baby over after the birth.

During the pregnancy, however, she changed her mind, and at T's birth refused to hand over the baby as agreed.

The mother has two older children. Mr W is a chef and he and Mrs W were married in 2005.

After Mr and Mrs W were married, they tried to have a baby themselves, but their attempts resulted in a series of miscarriages, which led them to consider surrogacy.

It was agreed that the mother would act as a surrogate for the Ws, using Mr W's sperm, and she became pregnant, but at some point during the pregnancy, relations between the parties deteriorated.

To read more go to http://bit.ly/e7uV7q

International surrogacy: progress or media hype?

International surrogacy has become big news. Last month, a landmark international commercial surrogacy case, Re L [1], attracted front page national headlines. Hard on its heels the media spotlight fell on the birth of Elton John and David Furnish's US surrogate born son, Zachary, on Christmas Day. This has fuelled the debate about surrogacy and the question is why has it generated such attention? The decision in Re L attracted front page national headlines because it marks a significant watershed in the history of UK surrogacy law. For the first time the court has made clear that the child's welfare will trump public policy on payments. It is only the third published case of its kind to ratify a foreign commercial surrogacy arrangement. Having represented the parents in this case (as well as the first parents to secure a parental order in the case of X&Y in 2008 [2]) I know how difficult and sensitive these applications are and quite how much is at stake.
In Re L, a High Court judge, Mr Justice Hedley, awarded legal parenthood to the British couple who entered into a commercial surrogacy arrangement with a surrogate mother in Illinois, USA. Notwithstanding the public policy ban on commercial surrogacy in the UK (which allows only the payment of reasonable pregnancy related expenses to a surrogate, unless retrospectively authorised by the English court on a case by case basis), the judge decided that the welfare of the child (known only as 'L') was the paramount consideration.

Mr Justice Hedley ruled that legal changes last year now (for the first time) weight the balance between public policy and the welfare of the child decisively in favour of welfare except in the clearest case of abuse of public policy. He authorised the British parents' commercial payment to their surrogate and awarded them legal parenthood. In doing so, he highlighted the legal difficulties surrounding re-entry into the UK after the birth, the need for intended parents to grapple with immigration control and the continuing lack of availability of good quality information. He warned that the court would continue to police the public policy concerns and scrutinise the issue of payments carefully. He also added that the legal criteria had been 'fully met' by the 'most careful and conscientious parents' in this case.

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Barrie and Tony to open 'one-stop-shop' Surrogacy centre in UK

Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow - the first gay couple in Britain to have a baby with a surrogate mother, and who advised Sir Elton John and David Furnish over their new son, Zachary - tell Olga Craig about their newest arrival: a "one-stop-shop" surrogate baby centre which they open in Essex next month
It is a morality tale for our times. To the casual observer, they could have been the conventional Christmas festivities seen in any household – turkey and trimmings, excited children, doting parents and a huge pile of presents under the tree.

But this was anything but a traditional gathering. In the Drewitt-Barlow home, the guest list for last weekend’s laughter-filled Christmas lunch consisted of five children, their two fathers and their four mothers.

In our changing moral climate, in which the traditional nuclear family is becoming increasingly outmoded, such a mix of melded families is far from uncommon.

But this household – a happy one, it must be said – is unique. Seated around the table with gay parents Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow and their children were the two women who donated eggs and the pair who were the surrogates, carrying the children.

The youngsters call Barrie Dad and Tony Daddy and refer to all four women as Mum. They live with their fathers in Essex during term time and spend the holidays in California, where the couple also have a home and where they see their mothers – although none of the women has any legal rights over their offspring.

Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, 42, and his partner Tony, 46, were headline news a decade ago when they became Britain’s first gay surrogate parents.

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Sister to become surrogate for her gay brother

The London Women's Clinic (LWC) has reportedly received an application for fertility treatment by two gay men wanting to raise a child who wish to use one of the couple's sister as a surrogate.
Up to 30 percent of LWC's clients are lesbian couples, representing an increase of about ten percent from ten years ago, but the applications to the clinic made this week are the first to be received from a male same-sex couple. In an interview with the Evening Standard, Dr Kamal Ahuja, scientific director at LWC confirmed that the clinic's ethics committee was considering the application alongside another received from a gay couple who have also applied for treatment using a surrogate.

The LWC was one of the first clinics to admit lesbian's for donor insemination and has carried out studies demonstrating that the wellbeing of children is not compromised by the absence of a 'father figure'.

Dr Ahuja said: 'The definition of a traditional family is progressively fading. Though we had concerns some years ago, the evidence now is that we need not worry in terms of same-sex parenting'. He added: 'Families of the future may combine up to five parents. Regardless of culture, the evidence is that children adapt well and it's the quality of the nurturing environment which is important'.

The surrogacy application made to LWC is not unique in the UK. Last year it was reported that Lorna Bradley had acted as a surrogate for her brother and his partner but until recently gay couples have been said to be more likely to travel to the United States to enter into surrogacy arrangements where there is less regulation. If the application is accepted by LWC and the attempted surrogacy is successful, the couple will be among the first gay men in the UK who will both be entitled to be a named parent on the child's birth certificate since changes were made to the law in April 2010.

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Surrogacy: We went from nought to three children in a year

After her hopes of getting pregnant were crushed, Caroline Van Den Heever turned to surrogacy to keep alive her dream of starting a family
My house is full of noise and activity – shouting, laughter and colourful paintings pinned to the noticeboard. Not so long ago, it was deathly quiet and I hated it. That was before my husband Jan and I had our three amazing children, born through surrogacy and egg donation in a journey that took us across the world and to the limits of our emotions.

The number of babies born to surrogates is relatively small, given the thousands of women desperate to become mothers. ‘Each year, there are just 50 to 70 surrogate pregnancies in the UK,’ says Sabreena Mahroof, secretary of Surrogacy UK. ‘Others are undergone by women abroad for couples in the UK: we don’t know how many live births those amount to, but it is thought there are currently about 750 surrogate children in the UK.’ Surrogacy, where another woman carries the baby for the one who will become its mother, is used when a medical condition makes it impossible or dangerous to get pregnant and give birth, such as after repeated IVF failure, or cancer treatment, or because of a heart condition. ‘Surrogacy is the last resort,’ says Sabreena. ‘You have to prove through your GP that you have tried everything else, because we can’t risk a surrogate’s life by putting her through a pregnancy unnecessarily.’

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