Surrogacy solicitors

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Our surrogacy solicitors understand the complexities and sensitivities involved in surrogacy arrangements.

We provide expert legal advice and support to intended parents, surrogates, and donors throughout the entire process, ensuring that all parties are fully informed and protected. Our team has extensive experience in navigating the law surrounding surrogacy in the UK, and we are committed to helping our clients achieve their desired outcomes with compassion and professionalism.

Having a child through surrogacy is a life-changing and exciting process. There are many legal implications that need to be considered. First a foremost, a surrogate will be the child’s legal parent until the legal parenthood is transferred to you after the child is born. It is therefore important to know your rights from the very outset so that you can be sure that surrogacy is right for you. In some circumstances, you may wish to enter into a surrogacy agreement in order to outline how your arrangement will work.

As surrogacy solicitors that have worked on cases of this type, we can help you to understand the surrogacy process and be fully prepared while embarking on this process to ensure; the Moore Barlow team of surrogacy lawyers in London, Richmond, Southampton, Guildford, Woking and Lymington are highly experienced in these areas.

What is surrogacy?

Surrogacy is an arrangement where a woman carries and gives birth to a child for another person or couple. The surrogate mother may be biologically related to the child or use a donated egg, and the arrangement may be either commercial or altruistic.

Beverley Cullis

Beverley Cullis

Senior associate (CILEx) | Family

01483 543214

What is the process for surrogacy?

If you are considering having a child through surrogacy in England, Wales or abroad, then there are many considerations, including legal, emotional and practical arrangements that will need to be made. These are important consideration so that you can be assured the child, once born, will be legally recognised as your own child for which you have full responsibility under the law.

There are many steps to surrogacy, and you can benefit from having expert legal advice along the way, which is where our surrogacy lawyers can help. In brief, the framework for surrogacy usually includes the following stages:

  • Decide where you want to commission the surrogacy arrangement and consider any immigration issues.
  • Decide on whether you wish to work with a surrogacy organisation and which one.
  • Decide on a surrogate and what type of surrogacy i.e. is any donated egg/sperm required.
  • Prepare a surrogacy agreement and complete all the necessary forms of consent.
  • Conception of the child and the following maternity.
  • The birth of the child and migration if surrogacy commissioned abroad.
  • The transfer of legal parenthood by way of a parental order.

What is a surrogacy agreement?

A surrogacy agreement can be an extremely useful document to clearly set out everyone’s intentions before, during and after embarking on this process together. An agreement can clarify what role the surrogate will have and what rights and responsibilities the intended parents will have. A surrogacy agreement can outline all potential outcomes and eventualities to ensure everyone is entering into the arrangement with a full understanding of what to expect to avoid any issues later on occurring.

It’s important to have the appropriate legal advice when developing your surrogacy agreement, which is where our experienced surrogacy law solicitors in London, Richmond, Guildford, Woking, Southampton and Lymington can help. We will help you look at all the possible eventualities and make sure that the surrogacy agreement accurately reflects your intentions.

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What is a parental order?

For a child born via surrogacy to be legally considered the child of the intended parents, they must apply for a parental order. There are strict criteria that must be met for a parental order to be granted. Preparing an application and providing the correct evidence is therefore essential to obtain a parental order. Taking legal advice on obtaining a parental order can ensure there are no unforeseen delays. We can help you with any legal aspects of the surrogacy process, including parental order applications so that you do not encounter any unforeseen obstacles when having a child via surrogacy.

Why choose our surrogacy solicitors?

At Moore Barlow, our surrogacy solicitors are the best choice for anyone looking to navigate the complex legal landscape of surrogacy. With years of experience and a deep understanding of the legal issues surrounding surrogacy, our team is equipped to provide expert advice and guidance throughout the entire process. We are committed to helping our clients achieve their surrogacy goals in a safe, legal and ethical manner, and we work tirelessly to ensure that their rights and interests are protected at all times. Choose us for a stress-free surrogacy journey.

How can our surrogacy solicitors help?

The team of surrogacy solicitors at Moore Barlow are highly experienced in navigating the complex legal landscape surrounding surrogacy arrangements. We can help you understand your rights and responsibilities as a surrogate or intended parent, ensure that all necessary legal agreements are in place, and provide ongoing support throughout the surrogacy process. With our guidance, you can feel confident that your surrogacy journey will be as smooth and stress-free as possible.

We have offices in LondonRichmondSouthamptonGuildfordLymington and Woking and offer expert family law advice to clients nationwide. If you want to know more about the support we can offer to those planning to add to their family through surrogacy, please contact us.

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Start an online enquiry by completing our short questionnaire.

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FAQs: Surrogacy and donor

What is surrogacy?

Surrogacy is when a woman carries a baby through pregnancy for someone else. In some cases, the surrogate might carry a child that is biologically their child (i.e. their egg was inseminated) and sometimes the egg might come from a donor or from a woman who is later to become the child’s legal parent.

In the UK, the surrogate (i.e. the woman who carries the baby) is considered the legal parent of the child unless the court grants a parental order to someone else, even if the surrogate is not genetically related to the baby i.e. if her egg was not used. A parental order means that the surrogate will no longer have any rights, responsibilities or obligations to the child.

Surrogacy is legal in the UK, but it is a complex area of law and it’s important to take expert advice from surrogacy solicitors before either using a surrogate or agreeing to become a surrogate. This way, you can ensure that you’re fully aware of the legal complexities of this kind of situation and make an informed decision about your next steps.

In the first instance, the child’s legal mother will always be the gestational parent who will also be named on the birth certificate. This is the mother who carries the child to birth therefore an egg donor will not be the child’s legal parent. In the first instance, the child’s legal father will be the biological father but they will only be named on the birth certificate under certain circumstances.

A parental order must be obtained. This extinguishes the legal parentage of the surrogate mother and instead the applicant assumes the status of the child’s legal parent. The child must be living with the applicant in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man and the parental order must be applied for within 6 months of the child’s birth

A parental order is the only legally binding way in the UK at present for the intended parent(s) of the child born through surrogacy to become the legal parent(s) and for the surrogate to have no further rights or responsibilities to the child. Only a court can grant a parental order.

Parental orders used to be limited to those that were married, in a civil partnership or in an enduring relationship. The laws changed in January 2019 allowing single people to also apply for a parental order.

Yes, a parental order is still necessary if you want to be recognised as the child’s parent in the UK rather than the surrogate mother regardless of the laws of the country where the surrogacy arrangement took place.

A surrogacy agreement may be drawn up and entered into by the commissioning parents and surrogate parents before, during and even after the child is born. It sets out all the parties’ intentions and expectations and can include issues such as the making of a parental order, the financial obligations towards the child, the surrogate’s relationship with the child and how the child will be brought up.

A surrogacy agreement may be drawn up and entered into by the commissioning parents and surrogate parents before, during and even after the child is born. It sets out all the parties’ intentions and expectations and can include issues such as the making of a parental order, the financial obligations towards the child, the surrogate’s relationship with the child and how the child will be brought up.

Surrogates cannot be paid for commercial purposes however, a surrogate can be paid reasonable expenses which is determined on a case by case basis.

If you’ve already taken expert legal advice and have decided that surrogacy is the right route for you in order to grow your family, it’s important that you carefully consider who your surrogate might be. Some people ask a family member or friend to be a surrogate, and some choose to find a surrogate through an agency or organisation. Fertility clinics are not legally allowed to find a surrogate for you.

It’s a good idea to draw up a surrogacy agreement as early in the process as possible so that everyone is clear about what to expect and how the arrangement will work for all involved. The surrogate should sign this agreement before you proceed with conception.

The commissioning parents will not know the identity of an unknown donor unlike a known donor. In the UK an unknown donor can only be used through a UK licensed clinic. Likewise, an unknown donor will not know the identity of the mother or any child conceived but can request confirmation of the number of children born as a result of their donation, the children’s genders and the years of birth.

An unknown donor will remain anonymous until the child turns 16 after which they can request non-identifying information. Once a child turns 18 they can then request identifying information about the donor however, donations before 1 April 2005 were anonymous therefore any information before this date will only be available if the donors have agreed to remove their anonymity.

This will depend on the relationship between you and your partner and whether the donation was carried out in a UK licensed clinic. If the donation is carried out in a UK licensed clinic then the donor will not be the child’s legal parent and the mother can agree for her partner to be the other legal parent, regardless of whether they are married or in a civil partnership. If the donation takes place outside of a UK licensed clinic then the partner must be married or in a civil partnership with the mother in order to be considered the child’s legal parent.

A donor agreement may be drawn up and entered into by the commissioning parents and the donor before, during and even after the child is born. It sets out all the parties’ intentions and expectations and can include issues such as the financial obligations towards the child, the donor’s relationship with the child and how the child will be brought up.

Donor agreements are not legally binding in the UK. A donor agreement is however useful to ensure that all the parties involved understand the practicalities of the arrangement. This can help avoid any misunderstandings, oversights and disappointment at a later date. Although donor agreements are not legally binding, the courts can still consider them in relation to any disagreements in the future to take into account the parties’ intentions.

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