Law Commission publishes consultation paper on surrogacy reform

The Law Commission, together with the Scottish Law Commission, has published a consultation paper with its proposals for the ways in which UK surrogacy law could be reformed.

A new legal pathway has been proposed, so that intended parents through surrogacy are the child’s legal parents from birth. As it currently stands, intended parents are not recognised as legal parents until a parental order has been granted by the family courts, a process which usually takes a matter of months to complete. This means that the surrogate and, if she’s married, her husband, are the child’s legal parents for a period of time after the birth, putting both the intended parents and their surrogate in a difficult position.

Amongst others things, the paper also proposes that the need for the parents to have a genetic link with the child is removed, meaning intended parents could have a child through surrogacy using both donated sperm and donated eggs.

Members of the public are being asked for their comments on the proposals, and the consultation will end on 27 September 2019.

Surrogacy law in the UK is outdated and in desperate need of reform, and this paper is a positive step towards a clearer legal framework which is fit for purpose.

A copy of the full report can be read here.

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