Purple
I’ve been wondering for a while about the purpose of the survey carried out by Surrogacy UK that said the 65% of surrogates (who responded) wanted to give up their parental rights at birth.
I listened to all of Dustin's blogs on radio 5. He talks a lot about keeping parents (commissioning) and surrogates "Safe". (No mention of the baby).
Basically when he and Tom Daley had their baby in California the law allowed them to draw up contracts, they took the paperwork to hospital with them, they left the hospital with a baby with their names on the birth certificate. He praises how everyone knew where they stood. The surrogate mother (and her husband), the nurses, Tom and Dustin. The surrogate was protected from them making a last minute decision they didn't want the baby for whatever reason. They were protected from the surrogate making a last minute decision to keep the baby.
He was appalled, arriving in the UK with the baby to have to go through the British court system to officially get a parental responsibility order. (Sorry, I can't remember precisely what it is called). And that someone would visit their home to check everything was in order, with the implication the baby could be taken from them if certain standards or conditions were not met. That it could all take several months during which time they weren't the official parents of their baby.
In some ways I had a certain sympathy with him as presumably the baby is an American citizen, American parent, born in USA, but Tom is British and they want to raise the baby here, and presumably want it also to have British citizenship, so they have to satisfy the British courts.
Which is all a bit of a side issue. But in the UK the children's act protects children. So babies born through surrogacy have some protection which presumably doesn't exist in USA/California in that the surrogate mother, whether or not she is the biological mother, is assumed to be the mother and has parental rights until such time as the commissioning parents have applied for and acquired a parental responsibility order. It takes a few months. I assume enquiries are made to ascertain their suitability as parents similar (but probably less rigorous) to adoption but I'm just going by what I can remember from Dustin's blog.
Surrogate mothers, especially those who are not the biological mothers, appear to want similar "protections" that American surrogate mothers can have, ensuring they will not be left holding the baby. (Apparently this does happen from time to time, with relationship breakdown between the commissioning parents being cited as a common cause). They want the "protection" of a contract meaning they hand over the baby and their responsibility ends then, a clean cut contract similar to in California.
Anyway 65% of how many exactly?
I've tried to explain as per my understanding from Dustin's blogs. Others may have a more accurate understanding of the law.