Tag: United Kingdom

Proposed Reforms to UK Surrogacy Law

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

The ConnecteDNA project: thinking about law reform and gamete donor anonymity

Progress Educational Trust | April 3, 2023

Identity release of donors is increasingly recognized as important for donor-conceived children, and direct-to-consumer DNA testing makes donor anonymity more difficult. Regulators and researchers are assessing whether law reforms should remove donor anonymity in gamete donation (which is common in surrogacy arrangements).

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Children’s views of surrogacy detailed in report given to UK law commissions

Irish Legal News | February 2, 2023

A new U.K. study asked young people born through surrogacy their views on surrogacy law. Children were positive about altruistic surrogacy involving an open contact, but were concerned about arrangements that involved financial compensation.

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Event Review: Future Directions in Surrogacy Law

Progress Educational Trust | January 23, 2023

The U.K. is in the process of reconsidering its surrogacy laws. Potential reforms include surrogacy birth registration, the process through which intended parents acquire legal parenthood, surrogates’ expenses, and how people born through surrogacy can access information about their origins.

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Why Egg Donors Need to be Brought Out of the Shadows in Surrogacy Arrangements

Dr Marilyn Crawshaw & Nina Barnsley | Progress | December 19, 2022

While research and discussions around surrogacy increasingly address relationships between surrogates and intended parents, they often fail to include egg donors, leading to marginalization of donors and lack of full knowledge of genetic origins for donor conceived people. 

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Global Surrogacy Agency Accused of Putting Women at Risk With ‘Unethical’ Medical Procedures

Shanti Das & Simon Bowers & Malia Politzer | The Guardian | December 18, 2022

UK surrogacy laws require intended parents to apply to become legal parents, which can take up to a year to be finalized. In the meantime, intended parents have no legal rights to the child, including the ability to make decisions  in the case of medical emergencies.

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Parents Who Use Surrogate Waiting Up to a Year to Become Legal Guardians

Maya Oppenheim | Independent | November 27, 2022

UK surrogacy laws require intended parents to apply to become legal parents, which can take up to a year to be finalized. In the meantime, intended parents have no legal rights to the child, including the ability to make decisions  in the case of medical emergencies.

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Why So Many More Women Are Volunteering to be Surrogates

Maya Oppenheim  | Independent | November 27, 2022

2021 brought a sharp increase in the number of women in the UK volunteering to be surrogates. Factors contributing to the uptick include increasing social acceptability of surrogacy and desire to support LGBTQ families. 

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Tinder-style App Lets Hopeful Partners Swipe to Find a Surrogate Mother by Matching Users ‘With the Right People’

Jim Norton | Daily Mail | July 12, 2022

A new, Tinder-style app in the UK will use Artificial Intelligence to match intended parents to potential surrogates according to selected characteristics.

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UK Fertility Watchdog Could Recommend Scrapping Donor Anonymity Law

Hannah Devlin | The Guardian | May 20, 2022

Due to the rapid rise of consumer genetic testing, the UK’s HFEA is considering removing the anonymity period for sperm and egg donors. This would allow contact between donors, donor-conceived people, and their genetic parents, but first the change requires careful consideration by all parties.

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