Male couple granted legal parentage of a baby born through an unlawful Chinese surrogacy arrangement in which they would receive a refund if the baby was a girl.

[Imnobody4]

This is disgusting. These men have no moral compass and the law does nothing.

www.thetimes.com/article/2c8eb5d1-a22d-464c-b0e5-9d2a014d542a?shareToken=2b1c87683cdc202bf234fb860c960451
The couple’s surrogacy agreement stipulated the use of genetic testing during the IVF process to allow for sex selection, so that male embryos could be prioritised and transplanted into the surrogate mother’s womb first.

The contract also stated that the couple would be given a partial refund if a girl was born rather than a boy.

Oh isn’t it wonderful that couples are now able to buy a lovely little baby to create a family 🙄

There are a lot of missing girls in China. One child policy and preference for boys…

But he warned the decision should not be seen as “a licence to engage in unlawful commercial surrogacy arrangements abroad”.

Except it clearly and unequivocally will be seen as a licence to do this.

Only saving grace is that a poor little girl is saved from growing up in a house with revolting misogynistic men.

Sickening. Surrogacy should be banned completely. It is so unethical.

These men are not fit to be parents. No person who is so callous and misogynistic as to set up an arrangement like this has sufficient humanity in them to be an adequate parent whether of a boy or a girl. The whole thing stinks. There is no ethical way to do paid surrogacy. It's illegal to sell a kidney, it should be just as illegal to sell a baby - and technically it is but yet the wealthy find a way to do it and the law colludes.

Absolutely shameful. I bet the mother was paid far less than they thought. And it sounds like she was separated from her other children during the pregnancy. It's exploitation and I don't see how ppl can't see that. What's to stop this couple repeating this process when they want a sibling?

The arrangement should never have happened in the first place.
Since when has ‘sorry, we didn’t know this was illegal’ a defence for committing a crime in any country?

I was just reading this article, thank you for drawing attention to it, OP.

It is sickening and shocking. Aside from the immorality and misogyny, some additional stand out points for me:

-the mother had to literally move away to hide the fact that she was acting as a surrogate, because she had previously only given birth to girls and her husband had left her for this.

-the men who hired the surrogate now have a full time nanny. So they have bought a baby boy, taken him from his mother, and hired another woman to look after their baby full time.

Is there any organised group advocating for legislative change ok this? Is there a petition I can sign? What can we do to stop this horrible practice.

They should be sent to prison for human trafficking. Instead they've got exactly what they paid for, with no repercussions.

Wanting a refund if the baby was a girl!

Men like that shouldn't be anywhere near children. Human trafficking in plain sight.

Note the use of a full time Nanny, bet they do nothing. I think a thread like this needs to be on the main boards for wider attention.

The article mentions this :

However, Helen Gibson, founder of Surrogacy Concern, which wants to see foreign surrogacy banned in Britain, said she was “appalled” to see the parental order granted.

Could be worth looking into them.

Shocking article.

@ClimbingBear

Thank you, I have contacted Surrogacy Concern with a request to join. This is their email address, in case others are interested:[email protected]

And this is their website: https://surrogacyconcern.uk

One child policy ended in 2015

That's true but it's had an enduring effect - there is still a low birth rate and still more boy babies.

There have been other shocking cases, including several where the new parents were in their 70s. In one case the commissioning mother had had to go into a care home and the child visited her there! Then she died. The courts fume but at the end of the day, what can they do? The child has been living with its new family for months or even years; one parent is biologically related; there are no concerns around abuse or neglect to justify removal by social services; the parents would appeal and almost certainly win the child back.

The law has to change to ban it in the first place, before a baby exists.

This, and it has also led to a huge trade in baby trafficking and female trafficking (due to the shortage of wives)

Commercial surrogacy is already illegal in both the UK and China, yet this has happened anyway. The case sounds complex- only one baby buyer is a UK citizen, he is originally Chinese, I wonder what strings he could pull to get officials there to ignore the law.
The other guy is not a UK citizen and both men live in a third country.

Whilst I don't agree with the outcome, I'm struggling to see another outcome that would have been preferable. Handing the child back to his mother probably wouldn't have helped- she didn't want to admit she had been part of such an arrangement, she may simply have sold or abandoned her child again. If the child was deported back to China I don't fancy it's chances in the Chinese care system (but I could be wrong on that).

Possibly the best outcome would have been to bring the child into the UK care system, but it's worth remembering our care system costs a lot of money for quite poor outcomes, which is why the authorities aren't keen on bringing more children into it unless they absolutely have to. Also, how you would enforce this whilst the child is in a third country, I don't know.

This is the mess international surrogacy causes.

How did they even get a passport for the baby to take it out of China if surrogacy is illegal?

The poor baby boy. Purchased and customised like a car.
I am deeply suspicious of their reasons.

Agreed. We're going to have to change the law. We don't allow a trade in organs - that's a criminal offence. Maybe that can be a model for a law about not trafficking babies?

That story is utterly grotesque and gets worse and worse as you read on.

What a shame social services cant get involved due to the parents being entitled, egomaniacal, misogynistic pricks who exploit vulnerable women.

I understand the Judge's decision but am not sure that it was in the child's best interests. Fully admit I wouldn't want to have made the decision, but the men's behaviour is deceitful, deliberately breaching all manner of laws, unethical and the act of wanting a refund if the baby was a girl suggests a total disregard for the welfare of a child.

One can only hope that a baby left with men like this, receives special attention from the authorities.