... to think that a couple of nearly 70 should not be commissioning a child through surrogacy?

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

See article below, and extract from it with the key facts. This is abhorrent. This child was bought. There really is no other way to look at this. He was conceived for a 69yo man, whose sperm was used along with donor eggs from an unknown American woman, and a woman of presumably similar age, who paid another woman to go through the pregnancy and birth. The couple could never reasonably have expected to see this child to live to adulthood, and in fact the commissioning mother has already died. A couple of this age would not be allowed to adopt a child in the UK because in law the child's welfare comes first (rightly). The use of surrogacy puts a coach and horses through that. It ought to be banned in every country of the world, as it is in fact in a great many, but I'm not holding my breath on the US seeing sense in this area any times soon.

I don't see what else the court could have done here, given that the damage was already done. Poor little boy.

Edinburgh sheriff grants parental order recognising 72-year-old man and late wife as parents of three-year-old boy | Scottish Legal News

On 21 August 2020, A was born in the State of Oklahoma. The first petitioner’s gametes were used to bring about the creation of the embryo of the child along with the gametes of an American donor, with the surrogate who carried the child and her husband consenting to the making of the order. The State of Oklahoma issued a birth certificate on 2 October 2020 recording the petitioners as the child’s mother and father.

Due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, the first petitioner was unable to travel to the USA until July 2021, while the second petitioner’s health prevented her travel altogether. During the intervening period, A was cared for by a professional nanny, who agreed to act as A’s guardian in the event that the first petitioner died before A turned 18. A decision was made by the first petitioner not to apply for an order as a single parent, necessitating a guardianship order in respect of the second petitioner. This was granted by Dundee Sheriff Court in May 2023.

A was brought to Scotland by the first petitioner in August 2021. He visited the second petitioner in her nursing home three times a week for 21 months and recognised her as his mother. The first petitioner, while outwith the normal accepted range of parenthood, was described as active and energetic, and had enrolled A in nursery and researched boarding schools for his secondary education.

It was submitted that it was better for A that a parental order be granted than no order be made at all. ...

I agree with you. None of this was in the interests of that poor child. Surrogacy is a minefield and this is a clear example of something that shouldn’t be possible.

😱 that poor child 😢

People traffickers
Child abusers

Surrogacy should be illegal.

No-one should be commissioning a child through surrogacy.

Surrogacy is awful anyway, unless it is a close family member or something like that. But this is abhorrent and should absolutely not be allowed to happen.

The 'father' is already looking at shunting the poor child off to boarding school.

Nobody should ever commission the birth of a child. Ever. However, this case is especially awful. So many other people had to facilitate this madness, it really makes me despair.

That's awful. The law needs tightening to protect children.

Surrogacy is never about the children, is it? This is a particularly egregious example.

Fuck me. That's some dystopian nonsense. Poor kid.

Makes me feel ill, the child losing contact with the nanny, then watching the ‘mother’ die, and the father googling which boarding school he can ship him off to.

I understand that some 60+ year old couples in good health might wish to roll the dice that they'll still be sharp and physically ok in 18 years - after all it's not uncommon for men to father children in their 50s - but if one of you is already in a nursing home...?😬

Poor little kid.

See also.
this guy
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-43123658 www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-43123658]]]]
this couple (he's currently in prison)
www.businessinsider.com/family-has-21-biological-children-born-in-19-months-2021-11#:~:text=A%20couple%20used%20surrogates%20to,is%20unusual%20but%20could%20work.&text=Kristina%20and%20Galip%20Ozturk%20have%20had%2021%20biological%20children%20in,and%20Galip's%20nine%20older%20children.

No absolutely not. Poor child.
But then the interests of the child always seems to be way down the list in these scenarios. .

That’s just awful, poor child.

If Scotland is allowing this they're not ready for independence...

What???

My parents are this age - I'm 39! The thought of them having a wee baby is ridiculous. That poor child. And that's not even touching on the ethics of surrogacy for the mother.

!!!!

No words.

I’ll bet the house they did sex selection too to guarantee a boy.

At most they should have at least adopted a child in need of a loving home.

Fuck me.

I've got the maternal instincts of a teaspoon but my heart goes out to this poor child: raised only by a nanny, handed over to new care-givers, his "mother" dies when he's still a toddler then he's due to be shipped off to boarding school (not that I have anything against boarding generally, but it's not like this poor bugger has had a stable and secure upbringing as a base to start from) while he's likely to be orphaned before he hits puberty.

Why on earth would you do that to a child?

No they shouldn’t have. Children in the care system are in even more need of stable parents ideally in good health, not an adoptive mother so frail she’s already in a care home! They’ve suffered enough.

Don’t be trite and ignorant. Surrogacy legislation is the same in England and Wales as it is in Scotland.

There wasn’t much the Scottish courts could do by the time the application for parenthood status was made. The judgment makes clear there was no alternative available. Even though this situation is horrendous, now that the child does exist the only viable option available to the court was to make the person who wanted to be his parent his legal parent.

The surrogacy should never have been allowed to go ahead in the first place but that’s outwith the control of the Scottish legal system.

Yes I very much doubt these people would have been approved.

The commercial surrogacy industry is sick and is in no way about the babies (or mother!)

Well, yes, he would - because by that point, there's a good chance he'll be dead or in a nursing home himself.

Somebody will need to do the heavy lifting/parenting for the poor kid from about 10/11. Not as if the man who purchased him is going to, is it?

Er, no. Adopted children also deserve safe, healthy, stable parents with an adequate remaining lifespan to raise them into adulthood. They do not exist as a solution to septuagenarians who suddenly have a yen for children.

Just because something CAN be done, doesn’t mean it SHOULD be done.

I feel empathy for people who have been unable to have children. That is something that has no doubt been very hard for them.

But I think there are some huge ethical issues that we are ignoring around surrogacy. The father will be 80 when this child is shipped off to boarding school.

It doesn’t seem wholly in the best interests of the child. I think having children is often for slightly existential reasons - but then, why wait until you’re in your 70s?