A shocking surrogacy case

[Justme56]

https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Re-Z-Unlawful-Foreign-Surrogacy-.pdf

Unbelievable!

Good grief.

Credit is due to the judge involved for making a very nuanced and reasonable decision in the circumstances.

Awful story. Some people are so selfish.

Thank you @Justme56 for this - a shocking read and one for the pro-surrogacy crowd to reflect upon. Janice Turner would write a good article on this.

It is utterly shocking that babies can be created on commission in this way. That women can be so casually exploited. And that would be parents can do blithely choose to create a baby with no consideration of anything beyond the idea of ”having a baby”.

It seems that the realities for the people (because babies are people not just cute pets) who are being created in this way simply don’t have to be thought through - you can go abroad and commission a baby if you have the funds to do so without any consideration of what happens to get there and what happens next to that person at each stage of their life.

Great that the judge seems determined not to create a precedent here for future adoptions to happen like this, but if presented with the same case again, what other option could anyone choose but the same outcome?

How could you possibly commission a baby at those ages and not give any consideration to how they would be affected by having such elderly parents??? Either or both of them could be dead before the kids were even into double figures!

I wholeheartedly agree it seems incredibly selfish. Their 'need' to have children regardless of the child's needs.
I'm guessing at their ages, they wouldn't have been considered for adoption through the normal channels. And with good reason
Also who knows if the surrogates are being trafficked like the Thai women

Wow. Well done that judge on writing such a thoughtful, compassionate but firm summary on an incredibly difficult case.

Just awful, the selfishness and lack of forethought is astounding.

WTAF have I just read?

As if the human trafficking and synchronised elective surgical births* weren’t horrifying enough we’ve then got two little kids who will likely lose FIVE MOTHERS (two birth mothers, one genetic mother and two adopted mothers) before adulthood due to the selfish vanity project of a couple of wealthy senior citizens!

They wouldn’t have been allowed to adopt (babies that they hadn’t paid for) due to their age! Nor have IVF - surely the fact that every other pathway to parenthood was already closed off to them made them at least idly wonder if they shouldn’t actually be trying to start a family in their 60s?

*presumably this was so that the two children would have the exact same date of birth and thus be able to be explained away as somewhat ordinary adopted fraternal twins? Rather than a matching pair of designer babies commissioned by a couple with way more money than sense or scruples.

The obviously untrue ‘facts’ recorded on the birth certificate would’ve rather scuppered the slightly more palatable foreign adoption cover story!

It boggles me how anyone could get to later middle age and not think about what bringing up a human, not just a baby, involves! I just pray there will be enough of a support network around these children as they grow older.

Thank you for posting this, OP. A very interesting read. So many aspects of it are shocking.

This is inhuman. Ordering babies. Exploiting women as incubators.

I've only skimmed it, but are these the basic facts:

Donor eggs and sperm from the same two people;

Two embryos (so genetic siblings);

Two surrogate mothers at the same time, Ukrainian nationals;

Give birth in North Cyprus, on the same day;

The children are stateless because they don't gain automatic North Cyprus nationality, nor Ukrainian nationality;

Commissioning parents are two women in Britain in a same-sex relationship, aged late 50s or 60s at the time;

The legal case was for them to adopt the children in the UK.

What an appalling story - the women were both in their late 60s when they commissioned these babies. Those poor children will, as the judge pointed out, likely end up as young carers when in their teens for their "mothers" who will be in their 80s.
The inability of society to regulate this awful trade in babies is shameful.

Just to add to the details of the summarising posts above.

The women were in their mid and late 60s when commissioning the babies. By the time of the hearing one was approaching 70 and the other is into her 70s. These are “parents” of 4 year olds.

The younger commissioning parent was listed as the mother of both babies when registering them in North Cyprus. This was an accident but because the paperwork was (probably) in Turkish she had no idea what she was signing.

The babies share the same birthday because both gestational carriers were made to have C-sections on the same day to achieve this. There was no documented medical need for either carrier to have given birth via C-section.

They paid the clinic £120,000 for these babies. We dont know what the Ukrainian gestational mothers were paid.

Bloody hell.

@Justme56 thank you for this. I do hope that any consideration of changing the surrogacy legislation considers this case and the impact on the children.

This happened in my family. Twins surrogate from the US. "Mother" over 70 and father over 50. Father now dead from cancer and two 14 year old girls have a "mother" who is coming up for 88.
It's a tragedy.

The selfishness is horrifying.

Monstrous selfishness.

Good god what a sickening story, two poor children purchased like soft toys in an amusement park gift shop. No idea who their biological parents are, or who gave birth to them, being brought up by two women too stupid to even consider whether they would live to see the children reach their teenage years.

The only way I can see to try and prevent this happening again is for the court to be able to impose large fines or the threat of a criminal record when approving the adoption order.

And BlueNova says it’s not a one off.

How can they reach that age and have no common sense or wisdom?

I remember your thread @bluenova
I hope you are able to continue to have some contact with the girls and appropriate provision is in place for them for the future.

There is also the case of the little boy in Scotland who was commissioned by an ageing couple, born to a surrogate mother in the USA and whose father is in his 70's. The "mother" died of a stroke (I think) before legal parentage could be sorted.

So at least three outrageous cases in the UK.

What is wrong will all these old people wanting to buy babies? Why don't they just adopt a cat or get a puppy?
I'm in my early 60's and have several colleagues who are reducing their work hours in order to provide free childcare for various grandchildren. I'm so glad neither of my DDs are showing any interest in having babies. I don't see the next stage of my life being spent as an unpaid nanny. I dread grandchildren!

The Scottish case.

www.scottishlegal.com/articles/edinburgh-sheriff-grants-parental-order-recognising-72-year-old-man-and-late-wife-as-parents-of-3-year-old-boy

One selfish decision after another. Surrogacy is almost always about putting the rights of the child last.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

This is shocking, especially that evidence of his competence as a parent was that he was 'researching boarding schools' for the child's future.

At least the boy will hopefully inherit enough money for his immense therapy bill as an adult.