Surrogate loses custody of child to gay couple

A SURROGATE mother has lost custody of her child after a court ruled he would be better placed with the couple who arranged for her to have the baby.

A senior judge said that the child’s “identity needs as a child of gay intended parents” would be better fulfilled if he lived with the couple.

The woman signed a surrogacy agreement with a couple she had met online and travelled to Cyprus in Sept 2015 to have an embryo transferred. But the families fell out and the woman and her husband changed their minds. She did not tell the couple about the birth for more than a week.

The male partners began legal proceedings and last year a High Court judge ruled that the child, now 18 months old, should live with them.

The decision came to light after the surrogate mother appealed and a new judgment

This ‘demonstrates risks involved when parties agree to conceive a child’

was published yesterday. None of those involved can be named.

Court of Appeal judges ruled that the original decision to give custody to the gay couple with limited contact with the surrogate parents was correct.

Lord Justice Mcfarlane said that while surrogacy arrangements had no legal standing, the child’s genetic relationships and welfare were the most important factors for deciding where he should live.

While the legal mother and father had the right “to change their minds” this did not mean that they had the right to keep the child.

The child was conceived using sperm from one of the men and a donor egg, meaning one of the couple is a genetic relative, but the birth mother and father are not. Despite this they remain the legal mother and father as no adoption or parental order has been made.

Lord Justice Mcfarlane said the case “demonstrates risks involved when parties agree to conceive a child which, if it goes wrong, can cause huge distress”.