A conference at the University will call for the government to commit to reviewing the law on surrogacy so people who want to be parents don’t have to go abroad or use social media to find surrogates.
Specifically, the conference will recommend that the parental order process be reviewed to remove unnecessary limitations on who is eligible. This is the process by which the legal parenthood of the birth mother (and usually her own partner) are transferred to the parents who have used a surrogate.
The government is already committed to altering a small part of the law because of the discrimination found against single men who provide their sperm but Dr Kirsty Horsey of Kent Law School, who leads the Surrogacy Law Reform project, says there are further discriminatory aspects. She also argues that the fact that these orders exist and are restrictive in the ways they are able to be accessed promotes uncertainty and is at least partly why some people choose to go abroad to undertake surrogacy.
Dr Horsey’s conference, Regulating Surrogacy – problems and potential solutions on Friday 17 November from 15.00- 18.00 in the Moot Court room, Wigoder building, Canterbury, brings together experts pressing for change.
These include Dr Julie McCandless of London School of Economics, as well as Dr Noelia Igareda Gonzalez, a visiting scholar from Spain, where surrogacy is currently illegal, and Dr Pamela White, whose research focuses on Canada and why it has become a destination for intended parents travelling for surrogacy.
Dr Horsey says providing better regulated surrogacy in the UK would help to avoid the potential for exploitation of overseas women, especially in poorer nations, and decrease the risk to intended parents that can come with travelling overseas.
The Surrogacy Law Reform project argues it would be in the best interests of the children and families to use the numerous good, reputable, non-profit agencies that work with surrogates and intended parents in the UK. These organisations are currently unable to advertise their services, which Dr Horsey says helps to lead to the misperceptions about surrogacy that cause some people to go overseas and/or use social media forums where cases have shown things can go horribly wrong and all parties are left unprotected.