SURROGACY law in the UK is in dire need of an overhaul. So it was no surprise when, last year, the body that oversees legal reform, the Law Commission, announced a project to make surrogacy rules 鈥渇it for the modern world鈥�. A consultation paper is due in May.
I am a mother to two wonderful daughters born by surrogacy, who are now nearly 8 years old. For the past four years, I have been pushing for new legislation.
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The most hotly debated issue is whether surrogates in the UK should be paid. Former president of the Family Division of the High Court, James Munby, has . Yet the largest UK survey on attitudes to this, published last month, shows that surrogates don鈥檛 support a move towards commercialisation.
Over 70 per cent of surrogates agreed that they should only receive 鈥渞easonable expenses鈥�. They are motivated by making families, not money. The existing surrogacy culture in the UK, based on trust, mutual respect and partnership, has grown because the law as it is puts altruism at the heart of surrogacy. That must stay.
鈥淪urrogates are motivated by making families, not money. Altruism should be at the heart of surrogacy鈥�
Making it commercial would create problems. For example, in California payments to surrogates are typically equivalent to around 拢35,000. In total, surrogacy there can cost parents upwards of 拢100,000. We cannot be flippant about such sums. They are beyond most people. The real winners of a commercial model are surrogacy agencies and lawyers.
It is from these quarters that the call for commercial surrogacy comes loudest. Lawyers argue that payments are routine in the UK. In fact, there is no evidence that payments beyond reasonable expenses are routinely made. More clarity over what constitutes reasonable expenses, and better guidance, would go a long way to resolving key issues.
The focus of legal reform has to be where there is consensus: that parents should be recognised as such in law at or pre-birth. Currently, a surrogate is the legal mother of a child born this way, even if they are unrelated.
We need new surrogacy laws. Those laws must put the voices of surrogates, intended parents and their children front and centre.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淏earing the cost鈥�
