Progress Educational Trust BioNews | July 7, 2025
At a recent symposium at the University of Greenwich, researchers discussed the Law Commissions’ 2023 report and its recommendations for surrogacy law reform in the UK. They brought up issues unresolved in the report, including origin information on birth certificates, the implications of a surrogacy register, and the regulation of surrogacy advertising.
Progress Educational Trust BioNews | May 19, 2025
Citing other legislative priorities, the UK Government announced that despite its support for surrogacy, it is postponing updates to UK surrogacy law––a project that the Law Commission of England and Wales recommended in a report of proposed reforms published jointly with the Scottish Law Commission in 2023.
Proposed reforms to UK surrogacy law published by the Law Commissions of Scotland and England and Wales include a new “pathway” for intended parents to become legal parents as soon as the child is born, as well as a continued ban on payment for surrogacy. These articles explain or provide commentary on the proposed reforms as well as implications should they be implemented.
Surrogacy Law: What Is Intended… For Parents? For Surrogates? For Children? by Zaina Mahmoud, Progress Educational Trust
PET Podcast: Surrogacy Law – What Is Intended… For Parents? For Surrogates? For Children?by Sarah Norcross, Progress Educational Trust
Pandora’s box: Implications of surrogacy law reform proposals for birth registration by Thérèse Callus, Progress Educational Trust
Law Commissions’ proposals won’t achieve surrogacy modernisation by Natalie Gamble, Progress Educational Trust
Law Commissions publish draft surrogacy bill by Zoe Beketova, Progress Educational Trust
Intended parents should get legal status from birth, says British surrogacy review by Haroon Siddique, The Guardian
Surrogacy shake up in UK would create uneven treatment for birth mothers by Teresa Baron, The Conversation
Kirsty Hosey, Kamal Ahuja, and Nick Macklon | BioNews | September 27, 2021
Parental orders, used to transfer legal parenthood from a surrogate to the intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement, have increased fourfold over the last decade. Clinical experience from over 150 surrogacy cases at the London Women’s Clinic shows an increase in the number of treatments per year, especially by same-sex couples. This evidence suggests that surrogacy has become more socially acceptable and popular in the UK, likely due to increased support and awareness from non-profit organizations and digital platforms. Further reform on surrogacy regulations must be made to better safeguard surrogacy-born children as well as non-traditional families.
Connie Atkinson, Veronica Dindo | Kingsley Napley | January 6, 2020
This blog describes the current legal situation in England, Wales, and Italy regarding international surrogacy arrangements and parental orders issued in other countries. England and Wales recognize the surrogate as the legal mother upon birth and intended parents must apply to the English court for a parental order. Surrogacy in Italy is prohibited altogether, and parental recognition in other countries is rejected by the Italian authority, giving rise to individual legal battles.
