In the UK, parents of children born through surrogacy will become the child’s legal parents at birth under proposed legal changes in a move that ignores all ethical criticisms of surrogacy including that it commodifies babies and exploits low-income women who rent out their wombs to make a living.

After consulting on surrogacy reforms in 2019, the Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission published their final report detailing a new system to govern surrogacy.

Family law commissioner Professor Nick Hopkins said surrogacy has been increasingly used in recent years to form families ‘but our decades-old laws are outdated and not fit for purpose’. Many European countries ban surrogacy in all forms because of ethical concerns.

Under the current law, the legal mother of the child is the surrogate and the father or second parent is usually either the surrogate’s spouse or civil partner. An ‘intended parent’ can use the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 to become a second parent. However, often at the time of birth, neither, or at most only one, of the intended parents will be the legal parent.