United Kingdom: heading towards commercial surrogacy for all?

Publié le 13 Jan, 2017

In the United Kingdom, the House of Lords debated surrogacy last week, urging the Government to reform the current law. The House of Lords considers that the commercial surrogacy ban “has a prejudicial effect on altruistic surrogacy”.

 

“Surrogacy is a subject that suffers greatly from sensationalist journalism and broadcasting,” declared Baroness Barker, who opened the debate. “[However, surrogacy] has an important role to play in our society, helping to create longed-for families,” she continued, emphasising that, “the composition of modern families and the practice of surrogacy should be examined more closely by the Government”. She considers that this practice comes from the HFEA, which could collect data.

 

Some members of the House of Lords have also asked the Government to investigate the option of legislating so that parental orders can be created with the birth, giving biological parents “better rights when concluding a surrogacy agreement”. Finally, they raised the question of single parents having recourse to surrogacy.

 

The Government’s spokesperson, Baroness Chisholm, informed Parliament that the Ministry for Health would produce directives on surrogacy and would soon consult the stakeholders. The law could also be modified to grant single parents the same rights as couples when they request their parental order .

Bionews, Ryan Ross (19/12/2016)

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