Children born to surrogates should be told of their background
CHILDREN born to surrogate mothers should be told of their backgrounds, the Government has said for the first time.
The first official guidance for surrogacy arrangements says that “openness, confidence and transparency about a child’s origins from an early age – pre-school – is the best way to talk to children about their identity and origins”. Parents are also warned not to enter into informal surrogacy arrangements but to use a surrogacy organisation to arrange the process, and advised not to go abroad but to use licensed clinics in the UK.
The guidance was issued in response to a rising number of surrogacy arrangements, the Government said, and is intended to “ensure LGBTQ+ individuals are given equal care, and that all surrogates and intended parents are treated with due dignity and respect”. In 2016, 368 parental orders, which change the parenthood of a child born through surrogacy to the intended parents, were made.
Lawyers and campaigners have called the law “outdated” because it does not give intended parents automatic responsibility for the child and does not formally recognise surrogacy agreements.
The document from the Department for Health and Social Care, published yesterday, also tells healthcare workers that parents should be accommodated in the hospital alongside a surrogate mother.
“Wherever possible, it may be advantageous for surrogates and IPS [intended parents] to be accommodated away from the other mothers on the post-natal ward to maintain privacy at a sensitive time,” it says, adding that restrictions on visiting hours and overnight stays have “been found to be an issue for male, same-sex IPS”.
In the past, fathers have been forced to book hotel accommodation nearby because hospitals have not been able to accommodate them, a spokesman said.
Hospitals should be “more openminded” about accommodating parents in surrogacy situations to enable them to stay, the spokesman added.
Jackie Doyle-price, the health minister, said: “We know that surrogacy can be a complex journey which is why we have created a guide fit for modern society, one which balances the need for emotional support with clear legal explanations, for surrogates and intended-parents alike.”
♦ The parents of a sperm donor can visit his child, the Court of Appeal has ruled. The man, who donated sperm to a female couple, was allowed to see the child until they imposed boundaries and for 18 months there was no contact. When a High Court judge ruled in the father’s favour in June 2017, his parents were not included, but a judge has now said they can spend two days a year with the child.