Rise of gay dads sparks surrogate mums’ shortage
A HUGE increase in gay couples wanting to have babies using surrogate mothers has forced a leading agency to turn away infertile heterosexual couples.
The result is that both gay and straight people wanting to start a family are now being forced to use ‘risky’ online services that do not carry out medical or background checks on surrogates, the head of COTS (Childlessness Overcome Through Surrogacy) has warned.
Kim Cotton, chairwoman of COTS, said the increased demand from the gay community coupled with strict rules that prevent agencies advertising for surrogates to come forward has led to a dire shortage. She revealed that COTS has been forced to start turning away infertile couples because they have no available surrogate mothers.
Another agency, Surrogacy UK, temporarily stopped taking new applicants last year because of the shortage.
Ms Cotton said: ‘We’ve been overwhelmed. We’re having new applications from gay couples every day.’
Over the past six months, she said, for every online enquiry to COTS website from a heterosexual couple, there have been ten enquiries from male same-sex couples.
And according to the Government quango which represents the rights of children in the family courts, the number of same-sex couples applying for court orders to make them the legal parents of babies born through surrogacy have tripled – from 25 in 2013 to 78 this year.
Gill Watson, a surrogate who has had ten babies for infertile couples over 20 years, said: ‘I do find that a lot of my surrogate friends are working with gay couples now because they’ve flooded the market.
‘ The agencies are struggling to meet the demand.’
Ms Cotton said: ‘Of course, we’re not saying gay couples should not be able to have surrogate babies.
‘But there’s already a shortage in surrogates and the rise in demand from the gay community means that heterosexual couples have a harder time in finding a surrogate now.’
She said that desperate, would-be parents are turning to the internet and social media where women are offering themselves as surrogates without any formal background or medical checks.
In some cases, conwomen have been taking advantage of the situa- tion, fraudulently posing as pregnant and tricking vulnerable couples into handing over thousands of pounds.
In contrast, professional surrogacy agencies provide protection to would-be parents by checking their surrogates’ health records, living circumstances and criminal history.
Ms Cotton said: ‘ It’s risky to go outside an agency. There are unscrupulous people who will take these couples for a ride and rip them off.’
Changes in the law are vital, she said. It is illegal for women to advertise themselves as surrogates – and for anyone to profit from surrogacy. Only ‘reasonable expenses’ can be paid to surrogates.
Ms Cotton said: ‘If the Government changed our archaic surrogacy laws then we would be able to attract
‘New applications from gay couples every day’ ‘It’s very risky to go outside an agency’
many more surrogate mothers and be able to meet the rise in demand.’
According to Ms Cotton, same-sex marriage and a change in law that allows two men to be named as the legal parents on a child’s birth certificate has fuelled demand.
Gay men have been allowed to become legal parents of a surrogate baby since 2010. However, Ms Cotton said the rise in applications from gay men has only gained momentum in the past three years – a trend she attributes partly to the legalisation of gay marriage in 2014.