To make you aware that surrogacy is going to be liberalised

[VestaTilley]

Today, the Law Commission have published their final recommendations to Government, calling for reform of surrogacy laws in the U.K.

The proposed change would make commissioning parents legal parents at birth. That means that the birth mother would never be regarded as the legal parent, nor would she be listed on the birth certificate.

This has been privately lobbied for behind closed doors, away from women and maternity groups for years. The Law Commission consulted in 2019, but never published their responses or said who had fed in to their consultation.

Law firms and surrogacy agencies are rubbing their hands with glee today: I feel physically sick.

They would have you believe surrogacy in this country is “altruistic”. This is not the case. Women can receive upwards of £20,000 per pregnancy in “expenses” - which is a huge financial incentive to a woman if they are from a poor background.

Do we want to live in a society which creates a servant class of women? Which takes babies away from their mothers at birth?

When pregnant we are all advised to bond with our babies, breastfeed if we can and speak to our babies in utero. How does the NHS square this advice with making it legal for a child to never legally have a connection to its own mother?

If you are in anyway concerned about these proposals please, please contact your MP and raise all the noise you can to try and stop this before it is too late:

https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/surrogacy-laws-to-be-overhauled-under-new-reforms-benefitting-the-child-surrogate-and-intended-parents/

I heard some guy on the radio this morning talking about fertility journeys and how the women who give birth to the babies aren't biologically related to their children anyway.

It was gross

There is a clause that the birth mother (surrogate) can terminate the adoptive parents parental rights up til 6 weeks post birth isn't there? So the baby cannot be forcibly removed from her.

If someone agrees to be a surrogate, then the people are the parents... Not her.

I can't imagine going through fertility struggles, finally getting a surrogate and then having to enter a legal battle to get my baby.

Don't be a surrogate if you are going to view the baby you are carrying as yours. It's simple. They are entering into an agreement.

MN likes to go nuts about surrogacy, but it is the only option for some people who don't want to adopt and there ARE surrogates who do it because they think it is a beautiful gift vs "being poor".

Should it be highly regulated with psychological evals? Definitely.

I have a visceral reaction to surrogacy

I find it abhorrent

No-one is really thinking of the child

This is shocking - and fits with a current porn-filled, misogynist culture that is keen as anything to downgrade motherhood, women and the reality of women’s lives and bodily experience. We just become incubators and things to commercialise and buy, don’t we? And the baby is just a product, not a human being.

Where are organisations like the NCT in this? Are they all captured by this faux-progressivism that is actually extremely anti-women?

We used to know a lot about the mother-baby dyad and how important it is for lifelong attachment. And we used to recognise the sheer enormity of what it is to grow another human being for nine months and then take longer than that to recover. Fucking hell, it’s dystopian as fuck. And we used to think The Handmaid’s Tale was an extreme fantasy, not a potential reality!

'finally getting a surrogate' Even this dehumanising way of phrasing it reveals a lot about attitudes to the women in that position.

'but it is the only option for some people who don't want to adopt' Nobody has a right to have a child. Why do you think it's all right to buy a child?

I can't imagine going through fertility struggles, finally getting a surrogate and then having to enter a legal battle to get my baby.

I can't imagine going through pregnancy and labour and having my baby removed.

MN likes to go nuts about surrogacy, but it is the only option for some people who don't want to adopt

It shouldn't be an option.

and there ARE surrogates who do it because they think it is a beautiful gift vs "being poor".

And there might be a handful of sex workers who enjoy their job and actively chose it but the harm caused to the vast majority of women in sex work who have been exploited and harmed by it far outweighs that.

It's grotesque to see how common it's becoming. The vet on Morning Live announced that he and his husband are "expecting" a baby via a surrogate.

I will believe surrogacy is not exploitative when a rich woman does it for a poor woman at no expense at all.... yeah doesn't happen does it.

"We recommend reform to parental orders, include allowing the court to make a parental order where the surrogate does not consent, provided that the child’s welfare requires this. This would bring surrogacy law into line with other family law."

Looks like they are recommending the courts having the power to overrule the birth mother

I am shaking I am so angry about this. I honestly want to throw up. I’m going to email my MP about it now, if you feel the same way please do the same.

https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP

These are just recommendations by lawyers. The Law Commission isn't government. I can't see the government having time or capacity to decide to proceed with reforms, draft a Bill and get it through Parliament this side of the next election. It will also not likely be a priority for whoever wins. This has long grass written all over it.

I don't particularly see anything which liberalises surrogacy either. Most of it just suggests addressing areas of uncertainty in old legislation. If anything plenty of it seems to be more restrictive.

That means that the birth mother would never be regarded as the legal parent, nor would she be listed on the birth certificate.

How can this be described as benefitting the child? A child needs to know who their mother is, it can leave life long scars not knowing who your mother is.

This constant attempt to rationalise the mother:child relationship as something transactional and only what you can see before your eyes is grotesque. No-one is not arsed about their relationship with their mother, no-one. It goes deeper than we have words for and this sort of hyper-rationalising, well I just have no words for it.

The birth mother would have no rights under these proposals.

While the rest of Europe has banned surrogacy and is even tightening up surrogacy tourism in Italy, we are moving ever closer towards the commercial model in the U.K. which is the ultimate goal. A lot of people want to make money from buying and selling babies.

Don't copy the US where we have designer babies made to order by wealthy couples and celebrities who can't be bothered. It's a vile, profit-driven business where agencies rake in millions and babies are removed at birth.

Sorry OP but I agree with @Indoorcatmum

i do believe that there should be more regulation and psychological evaluation. If you haven’t been through infertility then you have no idea of the pain it causes.

I don’t have any sympathy for people who use surrogates even when it’s ’altruistic’. It’s putting the wants of adults over the needs of children. Some people compare it to adoption but it’s completely different, creating a child with the sole purpose of removing it from its mother. It’s the height of selfishness, just buying a baby. Babies as commodities- yuck. Renting a womb - yuck.

If you haven’t been through infertility then you have no idea of the pain it causes.

But it isn't about infertility issues at the end of the day, it is about a child, not the adults involved. The pain of infertility does not mean a child has to sacrifice their heritage and biological parents for you.

i do believe that there should be more regulation and psychological evaluation. If you haven’t been through infertility then you have no idea of the pain it causes.

I have fertility problems. I know exactly what it's like and yes I do think some people who have children are too quick to dismiss how incredibly difficult it is but that still doesn't excuse exploiting another human being.

I am morally opposed to surrogacy. There's just too much room for abuse and taking advantage. I don't think infertility trumphs it.

What about when the woman is unable to carry but uses her own eggs? Biologically the child is not the surrogates.

It’s awful. All surrogacy should be banned. It’s all unethical and never about the child.

It really isn’t. There is the option to accept things as they are as millions do. Parenthood is not a right.

I can see both sides of surrogacy but as long as there’s no exploitation of the birth mother and she’s freely choosing to do it then I think it should be allowed.

Agree with @Indoorcatmum on this.

A reform of the law was overdue because technology has outpaced it - the current law deals with traditional surrogacy (ie a woman is inseminated so she's using her eggs and giving up her baby), but that has basically been outlawed by clinics, so parents create their embryos first. So the surrogate is not giving up 'her' baby. The proposed changes seem to cover what were grey areas and so make the legislation tighter, which I think is right.