‘Deceptive’ Marketing and Hidden Costs: The Truth About IVF and Egg Freezing

Natalie Morris | Metro.co.uk | May 13, 2022

Waiting times for nationally-provided fertility treatment in the UK grew from 6 to 15 months after the pandemic. Consequently, the demand for private alternatives grew, which created a competitive marketplace with some clinics turning to deceptive marketing techniques.

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Couple Face Belarus Prison and Loss of Surrogate Child Amid UK Visa Delays

Matthew Weaver | The Guardian | May 10, 2022

A couple intending to enter into a surrogacy arrangement in Belarus is facing imprisonment because their travel visa is going to expire, but they cannot leave the country because the wife’s passport is stuck in an administrative backlog in the UK. 

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‘Surrogacy is Absolutely What I Want to Do’

Jo Deahl | BBC News | September 22, 2021

Current law in the United Kingdom states that the surrogate is the legal mother when the child is born, and that legal parentage must be transferred through a parental order. Because the law also outlaws surrogacy advertisements, intended parents have turned to social media to find surrogacy matches, especially since non-profit organizations have long waiting lists. Both government officials and those who have started families through surrogacy agree that UK surrogacy law needs to be updated.

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The Surrogacy Pathway: Surrogacy and The Legal Process For Intended Parents and Surrogates in England and Wales

Gov.UK | July 23, 2021

This guidance document outlines the surrogacy process in England and Wales and includes resources for choosing a surrogacy organization, writing a surrogacy agreement, and transferring parental rights. The document also discusses legal guidance, medical testing and genetic screening, and psychological counseling for intended parents and surrogates. 

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Surrogacy Law Change: The UK Needs to Look Across The Pond

Zaina Mahmoud | BioNews | June 28, 2021

Current law in the UK automatically assigns legal motherhood to the surrogate based on gestation. To transfer legal parenthood to the intended parents, at least one parent must be a UK resident and genetically related to the baby. This commentary proposes that future UK surrogacy law reforms follow the legislation in Colorado, USA, which regulates both genetic and gestational surrogacy, requires medical screening of all parties, and recognizes non-traditional family forms.

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How Many is Too Many in Surrogacy? Who is Thinking About the Children?

Dr. Marilyn Crawshaw and Professor Olga van den Akker | BioNews | June 14, 2021

Without international law to protect surrogacy-born children, an affluent few have grown their families through surrogacy for alarming reasons–the Ozturks have 20 babies to execute their dream of a large family, and a single man in Thailand currently has 13 babies out of a “hoped-for” 1000 in order to aid his possible future political election. The article claims that most of these children will not develop attachment to any main caregiver or be able to satisfy their need to know their gestational origins. More safeguarding, parental preparation, and ongoing support needs to be available to meet the psychological, social, and emotional needs of surrogacy-born children. It may be valuable to transfer some practices learned from adoption practices to surrogacy arrangements.

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Reforming the Law on Surrogacy: Reflections on the APPG on Surrogacy Report and Law Commission’s Consultation Paper

Charlotte Park-Morton | BioNews | June 1, 2021

This commentary discusses two papers calling for change in United Kingdom surrogacy guidelines: the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Surrogacy Report and the Law Commission’s Consultation Paper. The language in the 2020 APPG report is reflective of current legislation, which refers to surrogacy-born children as passive subjects of protection under the law, whereas the 2019 Law Commission’s paper underlines the importance of addressing the children as individuals with rights. Moving forward, surrogacy-born individuals are expected to pressure law reform to focus on children’s access to donor information.

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Should the NHS be Liable for Commercial Surrogacy Expenses?

By William Edis QC | Law Pod UK | May 1, 2020

In the UK, compensation for surrogacy is unlawful. However, one woman in the UK sought damages to pay for an arranged surrogacy in the United States after a UK hospital had left her unable to have a child. In this podcast by Law Pod UK, Rosalind English interviews William Edis to talk about the recent Supreme Court ruling. The interviewee makes an argument that commercial surrogacy should continue to be prohibited in the UK.

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Europe’s COVID-19 Lockdown Leaves New Families in Limbo in Ukraine

By Orlando Crowcroft & Marta Rodriguez Martinez | Euronews | April 4, 2020

in this article, a couple navigate travel restrictions after their son was born to a surrogate in Ukraine. With Ukraine’s borders closed, the couple details how they are processing their son’s UK citizenship and other obstacles they faced in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Surrogacy: New Parents Stuck in US Amid Covid-19 Shutdown

By Sirin Kale | The Guardian | March 26, 2020

James Washington, his husband Rob, and their 11-day-old baby are stuck in an Airbnb in Portland, Oregon. Under normal circumstances, the Washingtons would have applied for a US passport for their son, taken him home and applied for a legal order to recognize their parentage through the British courts. But as this article covers, COVID-19 travel restrictions have complicated gestational surrogacy arrangements for these parents and many others.

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