I looked into some other media coverage at the weekend and thought I would post this, my bolding -if this wasn't already commercial -labelled as supposed altruistic - surrogacy, with no legal consequences, then what the hell will happen with commercial surrogacy in the UK?
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/01/couples-paying-60000-surrogates-despite-uk-system-reasonable/
Couples are paying up to £60,000 for babies born via surrogate mothers despite a ban on commercial surrogacy, a study has found.
The UK’s “altruistic” system means surrogates may be reimbursed only “reasonable expenses”, which experts say should cost families no more than £12,000.
However, the world’s largest fertility conference heard that British courts routinely sign off costs of far greater value if they can be persuaded the child is going to a good home.
The survey of 177 sets of parents by the University of Kent showed that the largest group - 30 per cent - paid between £20,000 to 30,000 during the surrogacy process, while 25 per cent paid between £10,000 and £15,000, and 21 per cent paid £15,000 to £20,000.
Meanwhile seven per cent paid up to £40,000, and in five cases couples paid up to £60,000.
The law does not set a limit for “reasonable expenses”, however cash transactions are supposed to be scrutinised by judges when they make parental orders, the process that transfers legal parenthood from the surrogate to the intended parents.
Five couples paid up to £60,000, according to a study
Natalie Smith, from Surrogacy UK, which campaigns against commercialisation, told the European Society for Reproduction and Embryology annual meeting the current system gives courts “wiggle room”.
“The welfare of the child trumps everything, so that if someone does pay more than reasonable expenses the judge does have some flexibility," she said.
According to parents who responded to the survey, the maximum they took home was £25,000, indicating that significant legal, medical and other costs are involved.
Meanwhile surrogates who responded said they were never paid more than £20,000.
However, the large sums will fuel fears that total surrogacy prices are heading towards US levels, where the profit motive is allowed.
Commercial surrogacy is banned in the UK
Norman Wells, from the Family Education Trust, said: "It is difficult to see how the commercialisation of reproduction can ever be in the best interests of the child.
"It is adults who control the market and therefore it will always be adults who stand to gain from it.”
Surrogacy UK is one of a number of organisations campaigning for a change in UK’s 30-year-old law following a six-fold increase in legal applications linked to the process, from 55 in 2007 to 316 in 2016.
It wants intended parents to be recognised as the legal parents from the moment of birth, so they can make crucial decisions regarding their child’s healthcare.
Currently it takes an average of between six and 12 months for courts to grant parental orders.