NeighbourhoodWatchPotholeDivision ·
21/09/2023 00:06
extract from Feminists Gear Up For A New Fight
Just before Parliament broke for the Easter recess, very quietly and without much fanfare, the Law Commission for England and Wales, with the Scottish Law Commission, announced the publication of the report of their 2019 consultation “Building Families through Surrogacy”, and, in a departure from usual practice, produced a draft bill to accompany their recommendations.
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Surrogacy is the process by which a woman becomes pregnant, carries and gives birth to a baby on behalf of others. The practice, in this country and abroad, can include a woman using her own egg, meaning at the point of handover, a baby is being given away from its genetic mother. While it is not permitted to pay a woman to do this in Britain, a generous “expenses” regime currently sees women receiving upwards of £10,000 in many cases, across the duration of the pregnancy, and many surrogate mothers are unknown to the commissioning couple or individual before being informally introduced by a surrogacy agency. Currently, surrogate mothers are listed on the birth certificate as their child’s mother; this remains the case until a parental order is granted, and a new birth certificate can be issued; she retains her parental rights until the granting of a parental order by the Family Court, which can take up to six months; giving her longer after the birth to consider how she feels about the arrangement. Meanwhile, it is permitted to bring children into this country who have been conceived and carried through commercial surrogacy arrangements abroad, despite commercial surrogacy being illegal in the UK, and a practice which is viewed by many as exploitative and unethical.
The new proposals include reducing the time a woman has to change her mind about giving up her parental rights, and not automatically seeking her consent again to the arrangement at the time of delivery. They allow for open advertising for surrogate mothers, a minimum age of just 21 for surrogate mothers and 18 for commissioning parents. Additionally, there is no requirement for the woman to have previously given birth, and the mother, in the Commission’s “preferred model” would not be named on the child’s birth certificate. The proposals would create Regulated Surrogacy Organisations (likely the current agencies), giving RSOs the power to admit couples or individuals on to a new “surrogacy pathway”. In stark contrast to UK adoption laws, surrogacy arrangements on the pathway would not be subject to social work supervision or oversight by the Family Court. The Government is expected to deliver its response to the proposals by the end of this month.
Read the rest here. It's well worth reading, especially Baroness Hunt's (yes, that Baroness Hunt) views on surrogacy.