Hedley J considered a Californian surrogacy arrangement in which USD $23,000 was paid.
Held: Hedley J considered the issue of authorisation in respect of a payment for a commercial surrogacy arrangement and set out further the approach the court should take: ‘there is a problem for the courts of this country in that it raises the question of what the proper approach is where those who cannot do something lawfully in this country that they wish to do, go overseas to do it perfectly lawfully according to the country in which the surrogacy is carried into effect and then seek the retrospective approval of this country for something which, as I say, could not have been done here. This clearly raises matters of public policy and those matters really relate to, as it seems to me, three things:
(1) To ensuring that commercial surrogacy agreements are not used to circumvent childcare laws in this country, so as to result in the approval of arrangements in favour of people who would not have been approved as parents under any set of existing arrangements in this country.
(2) The court should be astute not to be involved in anything that looks like the simple payment for effectively buying children overseas. That has been ruled out in this country and the court should not be party to any arrangements which effectively allow that.
(3) The court should be astute to ensure that sums of money which might look modest in themselves are not in fact of such a substance that they overbear the will of a surrogate.
The last consideration, of course, is not one which is applicable to a case involving the United Kingdom and the state of California. It may, and does, arise in other contexts. The first two considerations, however, do.’
Judges:
Hedley J
Citations:
[2009] EWHC 2977 (Fam), [2010] 1 FLR 1156
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – D and L (Minors Surrogacy), Re FD 28-Sep-2012
The children had been born in India to a surrogate mother. The biological father and his civil partner sought a parental order. The mother could not be found to give her consent. She had been provided anonymously through a clinic.
Held: The . .
Cited – In re X (A Child) (Surrogacy: Time Limit) FD 3-Oct-2014
Extension of Time for Parental Order
The court considered the making of a parental order in respect of a child through surrogacy procedures outside the time limits imposed by the 2008 Act. The child had been born under Indian surrogacy laws. The commissioning parents (now the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Children
Updated: 08 May 2022; Ref: scu.466292