Surrogacy Resource thread : please post your links here

[FannyCann]

A Happy New Year to all.

I have been thinking about how I should concentrate my energies in the New Year - women are fighting many battles on so many fronts - against porn, prostitution, domestic abuse, the wonderful We Can’t Consent to this campaign, abortion rights, to maintain our spaces, our language, our sports and so much more that I haven’t mentioned.
For myself, I have been asked to join a particular campaign against surrogacy and I have decided that is where I will be devoting most of my time whilst still supporting all the other important causes in spirit at least.

The surrogacy market is a global business currently thought to be worth about $21billion with growth expected to reach about $41billion by 2026 according to India based market research firm Data Bridge. Women’s reproductive “services” are big business globally.

The Law Commission Consultation on new surrogacy law in the UK closed on 11 October 2019.
Many posters on FWR did great work researching, discussing and exploring the implications, educating and raising awareness, encouraging people to respond to the consultation so that responses weren’t simply confined to cheers of approval from “stakeholders” but real concerns and educated critique were raised.

Many of us may be wondering what happens next?

According to the Consultation paper what happens next is this: “After reviewing all responses, we will decide on our final recommendations for law reform, which we will publish in a report, accompanied by a draft bill (legislation) in 2021.”

The consultation, raising awareness and sharing the knowledge was very much the first battle. There is much to be done to follow up to prevent these harmful recommendations becoming law in the UK and to keep that global market out of the UK.

I am not able to give details but I wanted to let people know that there is work ongoing behind the scenes and small positive signs that the Law Commission are belatedly reaching out to some women’s groups who raised concerns.

Meanwhile I believe now is the time to prepare: we have a new parliament with many new MP’s who are no doubt completely unaware, now is the time to start lobbying MP’s and the government in advance if that draft legislation. I plan to hold my nose and meet with my MP, who is a staunch Catholic and who, for all his faults, I expect to take a dim view of the proposals. I will also be sending letters to key people in the government and department of health.

Since I first heard about the Consultation and proposed changes to the law just over a year ago, I have spent many hours reading, articles, legal cases, research papers, listening to podcasts, watching documentaries, reading and contributing to threads here, where so many other contributors share their knowledge and post informative links.

So I thought it might be helpful to have a resource thread, that we can refer to from time to time when looking for articles, research papers and other sources of information, links to FOIs, trying to find that thread where we saw interesting posts and so on.

I will kick off with some links to the consultation and related threads.

Please join in and add anything of interest you come across.

*The Consultation
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Short summary

https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/lawcom-prod-storage-11jsxou24uy7q/uploads/2019/06/Surrogacy-summary.pdf

The Full Consultation Document

https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/lawcom-prod-storage-11jsxou24uy7q/uploads/2019/06/Surrogacy-consultation-paper.pdf

Obviously it is too late to respond now as the Consultation is closed, but for reference here is the recommended response to the summary from Nordic Model Now, which many of us used as a template or a guide to help us formulate our own responses.

https://nordicmodelnow.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/surrogacy-consultation-responses-pdf-2.pdff_

Several women’s organisations responded to the consultation with public letters:

Nordic Model Now Open letter:

https://nordicmodelnow.org/2019/10/11/open-letter-to-the-uk-and-scottish-law-commissioners-about-the-surrogacy-consultation/

WPUK submission to Law Commission consultation on surrogacy reform – Woman's Place UK

https://womansplaceuk.org/2019/10/08/wpuk-submission-to-law-commission-consultation-on-surrogacy-reform/

EVAW (End Violence Against Women) response:

https://www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/FINAL-Letter-on-Surrogacy-.pdf

NIA response:

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

*Links to some of the related threads on FWR:
*
http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womensrights/3606313-The-Rumplestiltskin-Laww__
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http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womenss_rights/3613356-All-male-Law-Commission-discussing-surrogacy

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womensrights/3651968-The-illegitimacy-of-the-Rumplestiltskin-Surrogacy-consultationn__

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http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womenss_rights/3706683-SURROGACY-CONSULTATION-ENDS-ON-FRIDAY-11-OCTOBER-PLEASE-SUBMIT-A-RESPONSE-Edited-by-MNHQ-at-OPs-request

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womensrights/3649812-building-families-through-surrogacy-a-new-law-consultationn__

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http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womenss_rights/3698520-Did-everyone-know-that-MN-now-has-a-surrogacy-board

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/amiibeingunreasonable/3169070-To-think-theres-a-valid-discussion-to-be-had-about-the-ethics-of-surrogacyy_

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http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womenss_rights/3708724-Famous-men-and-surrogacy

UK woman donates eggs to gay couple after losing her cousin.
www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/littlehampton-mum-donates-her-eggs-to-gay-couple-after-her-cousins-tragic-suicide-4007845
She said: “My family was complete and after losing my cousin I began to re-evaluate what was important in life. I had my own beautiful children, and my eggs are going to waste every month. The question became why shouldn’t they be put to good use?” Forgive me but this seems to me to be an odd response to grief

I think the egg donation agency is exploiting a woman who is clearly still suffering from grief - taking advantage of someone when they are in a vulnerable spot feels quite unethical. I think they should have sent her away when she talked about her deceased cousin - but instead they went ahead because they are, after all, in the business of baby making. There's money to be had.

I think this case is even more difficult to understand @Delphinium20

I can't wrap my head around " had the grief of stillbirth so I'll have another baby to give away to another couple"

www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/mum-inspired-tv-drama-nest-6866080

How can anyone who has been through the grief of stillbirth have a baby and give it away?

And as for the commissioning parents - why use a woman with a poor obstetric history? Ectopic, miscarriage, stillbirth?

Amazingly all seems to have gone OK in this case but I think medical professionals who encouraged her were very cavalier - she could have had another stillbirth or other complications and as surely high risk for PND. 🤷‍♀️

Exactly. The agencies have a clear, single purpose of profit, and they have no problems risking mother and baby's health or mental well-being to stay in business.

Short video on new attempts to regulate surrogacy in Columbia, with subtitles. A lawyer is interviewed - one of the groups that financially benefit from surrogacy - and the journalist covers in a second interview, that a previous 16 attempts have been made to regulate surrogacy but there has always been opposition so the law never passed. Apparently there is now so much as a legal precedent this now has a chance of becoming law in Columbia, a country where women are not treated well...outside of an agency this piece says a woman will be paid between 4,000-7,000 USD.

%3A%2F%2Famerica.cgtn.com%2F&source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ&feature=emb_imp_woyt

I found it interesting that even in Columbia a surrogate mother speaks about how the baby isn't hers, the idea of 'extreme babysitting' has gone global.