SURROGACY CONSULTATION ENDS ON FRIDAY 11 OCTOBER - PLEASE SUBMIT A RESPONSE [Edited by MNHQ at OP's request]

[howonearthdidwegethere]

The Law Commission's consultation on surrogacy ends on 11 October. Please consider submitting a response. Needn't be long:

www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/surrogacy/

If you're not sure how to respond (the main document is 502 pages long!), there are already two great submissions you can draw on:

This one from nia, the VAWG charity run by Karen Ingala Smith:

www.niaendingviolence.org.uk/perch/resources/surrogacy-consultation-response-october-2019.pdf

This one from Nordic Model Now:

nordicmodelnow.org/2019/08/15/the-law-commissions-surrogacy-consultation-how-to-bamboozle-through-a-dangerous-new-law/

Thanks OP.

For anyone really strapped for time, Object Now have a 5 minute response to six of the key questions.

www.objectnow.org/news/2019/9/10/surrogacy-consultation-uk

If everyone can even send an email just responding to one question that would be an amazing way to get the message to government that this is a terrible proposal that doesn’t have public backing.

Like so many other proposed laws this has been hijacked by very powerful and well funded lobby groups who are only motivated by making money. Ordinary people weren’t consulted and no thought at all has been given to the human rights of babies to be with their mother.

This change in law is regressive and strips babies and women of their rights. All over Europe progressive societies are banning surrogacy entirely - Sweden and France most recently. The EU has included the abolition of surrogacy as a core goal due to its inherent conflict with basic human rights.

It’s very strange that the UK is so keen to become one of the only countries in the world to legalise the sale of human beings.

List of groups and lawyers the Law Commission met with is here

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/publicconsultationnonproposed#incoming-1434249

No meetings with women's or mothers groups or the royal college of obstetrics and gynaecology but they met with Stonewall...and the Brilliant Beginnings support Mermaids and Stonewall.

They met with one adult surrogate though, just the one...

You can complain here
[email protected]
Office Manager
Better Regulation Delivery Office
Lower Ground Floor
Victoria Square House
Victoria Square
Birmingham B2 4AJ
0121 345 12000_

www.gov.uk/government/organisations/better-regulation-delivery-office/about/complaints-procedure

That’s bleak OhHolyJesus. But not surprising at all.

More ££££ flowing into those consulted lobby groups from the IVF industry no doubt.

Thanks so much for getting that information OHJ! I will definitely complain

I've done mine. Next target is 19 year old who has actually come up with some quite thoughtful comments about questions 64 & 65 proposing a minimum age of 18 to be a surrogate or to be an intended parent hiring a surrogate.

If you have a teen daughter why not get her to answer those two questions.

"I don't want to be peeing myself" as per all those ads currently on TV was one of the less thoughtful comments she made.

Just to clarify, you don't have to answer all the questions. The first few are about you, email address etc, after that you scroll through, it's roughly divided into sections.

So get your teen daughters to answer 64 & 65 if they think 18 is too young to be a surrogate.

Or they might like to think about question 80
And consider how they could be compensated for the death of their mother as a result of a surrogate pregnancy.

A surrogate mother has recently died in Boise USA, it is not the first surrogate death I have read about.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/american-surrogate-death-bb_8298930

Just to say, this really is worth doing. I was shocked by what the consultation reveals. Basically, the approach is that women’s bodies, and the children born from them, are commodities. I can’t understand how these proposals could possibly be put forward in good faith.

You can do a page at a time and save it.

The more I look into surrogacy the more I see there are dark forces of men's rights and big business pushing for this.
At one of the consultations I went to there was a (presumably het) couple of hopeful parents. The aggressive level of entitlement from the man was extraordinary as he argued against my complaints that 18 was too young to be a surrogate, my concern about the woman Dustin Lance Black interviewed who had had 13 surrogate babies (women can do that naturally so what's the problem?) and more.

This really isn't about sisters and best friends doing a wonderful thing for each other. That is just the Trojan horse.

God, sometimes I wish I'd never ever visited this board and could be in blissful denial about how totally fucked up the world is. I used to think that surrogacy was a lovely notion before I had babies. I'll do a response today, thanks for the links

Finished it today. It took a while, even with copying and pasting many of the Nordic Model Now responses.
It made me both angry and unhappy.
Surrogacy benefits neither women nor the children conceived that way.
I can understand a woman being a surrogate for a wombless sister but the risks are so great that women shouldn't be doing it for unknown couples or as their "job".

I found the same 2Rebecca - it was a relief to send it. Now the complaint letter!

My thoughts about having a truly altruistic surrogacy arrangement with a family member is that this is not without potential issues either. What if they suffer great pain or complications during the birth, or even if they have terrible birth injuries that require long term treatment, or suffer fertility issues after giving birth for their sibling or cousin.

If my best mate donated an egg not only would I always see her in my child but if they got breast cancer or ovarian cancer I would feel so guilty and responsible.

If my sister had a child for me then never could have one for herself the damage caused to our relationship would be unimaginable, and if the most terrible thing happen it could split a family forever.

All this could happen without the question of cash for babies so it's just so complex and risky for me, I can't understand why more don't adopt.

The trouble with adoption is that very few tiny babies come up for adoption. Social services often see adoption as a last resort so many kids have attachment and behaviour issues by the time they come up for adoption that may not be reversible. Also their brains may have been damaged by their parents' substance abuse. Patients and friends I know who have adopted have had a lot of problems with children with attachment issues.
The kids being adopted now are different to those being adopted in the 1950s.
I think long term fostering can be better for all concerned as the expectations and emotional intensity are more relaxed then.

Sent, using the Nordic Model Now word doc version. Will be complaining tomorrow!

It's great to see so many people saying they've done it. I wish I had kept a note each time I saw a ✅ so I could tot up the numbers because there's quite few on the various threads in Mumsnet plus more on Twitter and spinster which is quite heartening.

Especially as it is a nightmare to complete even with help from the NMN download. It took me several hours on Saturday.

It's so frustrating that thanks to Brexit it feels as if every day for the last three years has been a good day to bury bad news. I want to write to various MPs and the Health minister but it feels like they just won't bother about this with everything else going on. The

That's interesting 2Rebecca I have heard of similar but I haven't been involved or around adoption to know that much about it.

I think a child that already exists and needs a loving home should prioritised (not the right word I realise) before a new life is created. I understand that need of wanting a child in your own image but I think this should be challenged and more should be done to help those who want to adopt and to adopt older children. The issue of children being affected by their parents substance abuse is more of a reason to invest time and money into helping them. I also think the assessment that adopting parents need to go through is thorough for a reason and childless couples should be encouraged into this route, rather than building families through surrogacy that involves all kinds of hoop jumping...mostly from women.

The Law Commission met with the Dept of Ed and I can't see the connection to surrogacy, it makes me suspicious of the steps that follow this consultation, will university students be approached for their eggs or sperm.

The Law Commission met with the Dept of Ed and I can't see the connection to surrogacy

Yes why did they meet with the department of education? I would think I was letting my imagination run away with me to suggest it has anything to do with the proposed minimum age of 18 but these days real life is bounding way ahead of my imagination in so many areas, so I am left wondering WHY?

I submitted mine yesterday using the Nordic Model now template. Bumping this thread.

Bump.

Thanks for the links. I was trying to fill it in earlier, but couldn't find the appropriate place to write 'selling a human is wrong. Commercial surrogacy should not be permitted in this country (or any country'.

It doesn't ask that question TheBullshitGiesOn

It is a very inaccessible document with its 118 questions.

Just answer a few key ones and send an email answer.

I had a bit of a rant about how the phrase 'intended parents' was just a euphemism, and really they should just be called buyers. A very polite rant of course.

I've also sent the consultation to SIL and DM. With the self id one DM was so outraged that she rounded up about 20 very unwoke relatives to also complete, and I expect the same with this one.

Well done YesDearNoDear I feel mine wasn't ranty enough!

Also a reminder that the UK Consultation on surrogacy law has one week to go. You can use Nordic Model Now ten minute download to respond.

https://nordicmodelnow.org/2019/08/30/how-to-respond-to-the-uk-surrogacy-consultation-in-10-easy-minutes/

Or just scroll through and answer a few questions.

42 Proposals to lift the ban on advertising.Yes uni women will be targeted for their eggs or to be surrogate mothers.

65 Minimum age of 18 for a surrogate (and also 64 minimum age 18 for commissioning parent of surrogate baby. Who would be funding this I ask?) Do you have a teenage daughter? Ask her what she thinks about becoming a surrogate mother at 18. My daughter thinks young women that age should be planning careers and going to university. And also that they are still young enough to deserve protection from adults who may seek to exploit or coerce them.

71 No maximum number of surrogate pregnancies a woman can undertake. Even dogs have more protection in law in the UK. Licensed dog breeders limited to six litters from a bitch and the Kennel club won't register puppies after four litters.

79 Compensation for pain and inconvenience of childbirth and complications.

80 How should a surrogate mother's family be compensated should she die as a result of the pregnancy. What price a woman's life?

94,95 are concerned with easing the way to bring a baby home from abroad for surrogacy tourists.
At a time when countries like India, Thailand and Cambodia have had to ban surrogacy to protect the populace from abuses and exploitation by rich westerners seeking uteruses for hire it is shameful that this country should be seeking to make it easier.
Imo anyone returning from abroad with a baby should be prosecuted for people trafficking.

107 Finally gets round to considering if there are any issues for the health service. 

118 is basically any other business.

I haven't mentioned earlier questions which are key proposals, which seek to change the way Commissioning parents acquire legal parenthood. Check out the Nordic Model Now answers to get more understanding of these proposals.

@howonearthdidwegethere OP do you want to ask MumsnetHQ to change the title to reflect the final week counting down? Or the closing date October 11 ?

In the news, a 52 year old UK woman, a self described ‘commercial surrogate’, says she is to go for a 14th baby as a result of what she says is a ‘compulsion’, with an IVF embryo to be transferred in a private clinic and the baby to be born in a UK NHS hospital.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7539757/Surrogate-mum-14th-time-52-admits-pregnancy-compulsion.html

In this previous article she says she is stopping doing surrogacy, talks about why she started it at the age of 27, how her family reacted, and talks about how she and her male partner allowed their own baby to be adopted by the intended parents after a surrogacy plan went wrong. The sperm donation from the intended father didn’t work and the pregnancy was from her partner, DNA tests on the baby revealed.

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2229021/Carole-Horlock-Why-giving-away-13-babies-Britains-prolific-surrogate-finally-quitting.html

Another previous article about her includes some reaction to her, including an unpleasant and revealing comment showing how surrogates can be seen as commodities, that she is ‘past her sell-by date’:

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6497693/Im-trying-sweet-16-Surrogate-mother-52-vows-baby-number-15-not-last.html

She's interviewed by Dustin Lance Black here, about ten minutes in.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p06vdfwb

He isn't remotely concerned about her doing it so many times.

The NHS has to manage these high risk pregnancies.