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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Surrogacy on the NHS

257 replies

Viewfromtheisland · 04/05/2020 11:48

Didn’t know it was allowed in Scotland but I’ve been educated by the Daily Record today....

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FannyCann · 11/07/2020 17:22

Just updating here as I have only discovered this in the past couple of days, thanks to dogged FOI investigating by another poster. 🦴

The Law Commission produced a strategy document in which it cited Surrogacy UK as a "key influencer".

Surrogacy UK had Kent University produce a research document for them "Further evidence for reform" (December 2018).
This called for "public funding should be made available for surrogacy related fertility treatment in the UK and to pay UK surrogate expenses".

As we can see, this is already happening in Scotland and Wales.

Surrogacy on the NHS
Surrogacy on the NHS
Surrogacy on the NHS
FannyCann · 11/07/2020 17:25

I can't find a way to link the report except this as a pdf. You need to copy and paste it into your browser to get the report.

surrogacyuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Surrogacy-in-the-UK-2nd-Report-20181230.pdf

ChristmasKitties · 11/07/2020 17:26

This is grim. Being a parent is not a right.

FannyCann · 11/07/2020 17:41

Indeed. The NHS paying for a woman to carry a baby for someone else.

More court cases waiting to happen.

viques · 11/07/2020 18:54

@Cattenberg

Ov9, I understand why you’re sticking up for your friends. And yes, sometimes surrogate mothers are content with their role and feel fine about handing the baby over.

But some do change their minds during the process, because they may have bonded with the baby, or grown to dislike the commissioning parents, or both. If you read the article by Jennifer Lahl I linked earlier in the thread, you might understand why some people, including me, are horrified by the proposal to relax surrogacy laws in the UK.

Here is a UK case of a surrogate mother changing her mind. It was supposedly “altruistic surrogacy”, but in reality it was anything but.

The surrogate mother (known as V in the judgement) had learning difficulties and limited financial means. She didn’t understand the arrangement she had agreed to, and had doubts early on in the process, but was afraid to tell the commissioning parents.

www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed161502

The applicants, A and B, were the commissioning parents. They already had twins, who had been born to a surrogate mother, V. Russell J was extremely critical of the couple's behaviour towards V. She described them as being "dismissive" of V, "wholly uninterested in her" and as seeing "her primarily as a service provider to whom they had paid £12,500" [35]. A, said Russell J, had "no understanding…that he was dealing with another human being whose own expectations and feelings needed to be taken into account".

I have just read through the whole of the judgement and my blood ran cold. The judgement actually concerns a second surrogate (X) the parents "commissioned" who they a) didn't tell about the breakdown of the relationship with their first surrogate (V) , by whom they had had twins, then b) bullied and lied to, both directly and by omission, despite the fact that (X) has significant learning difficulties.

If nothing else the judgement indicates that the surrogacy arrangements currently in place are totally inadequate, there seems to be no requirement for legal mediation, counselling, a standard form of agreement or regulation about how surrogates and CPS are introduced and helped to navigate the complex legal and emotional complications. It seems so remiss to allow surrogacy to be such a hit and miss affair, especially when we know how many adoptions still fail despite the care that is taken to deal with adoption legalities and matching.

Fortunately in this case a sympathetic and responsible judge looked beyond the initial application by the CP and investigated the whole sorry tale. Not helped by the fact that for a long time X had no legal representation and was not given recourse to public funds.

PrincessForADay · 12/07/2020 02:45

The more I read up on surrogacy the more I am shocked it's legal & unregulated

Roro1000 · 30/01/2021 01:34

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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