The Need for UK Surrogacy Law Reform

Last month, in a judgment that was hailed as the first of its kind, High Court judge Ms Justice Russell ordered a mother to hand over her child to a gay couple (H v S (Surrogacy Agreement), see BioNews 801).

The facts of the case were that S, the mother, agreed to be artificially inseminated with H's sperm in circumstances that she claims H was acting as her sperm donor. However, H disputed this, submitting that S was in fact acting as a surrogate for him and his partner, B.

Ms Justice Russell ultimately ruled in favour of the two men after having considered evidence which showed that the mother had agreed to be a surrogate before conceiving the child, deciding that in the circumstances of the case it was in the child's best interests to grow up with her father and his partner.

Image via Wikimedia Commons.