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Surrogacy Laws

Current UK Surrogacy Law

Altruistic surrogacy is legal in the UK. This means that a person can’t be paid to be a surrogate, but they can receive ‘reasonable expenses’. 

In the UK, the surrogate (and their married or civil partner if applicable) will be recognised as the child’s legal parent(s) at birth. Legal parenthood is transferred to the intended parent(s) after the child is born via a parental order.

At MSJ we help you to instruct a lawyer, we have a choice of seven that support our members. There should be one for the surrogate and another for the intended parent(s). We also support you with a surrogacy agreement, or sometimes called an intention document. This is a non-legally binding document that helps everyone involved to agree intentions and reach agreement as to how it will work, before commencing the surrogacy process.  It’s really helpful for both surrogates and intended parents to ensure effective communication from the start of your journey.  

Your Expenses

Our team will also work with you to understand more about your expenses, we have developed an excellent interactive guide to help you understand more about what is allowed to be added to your expenses.  There is also more information within the UK Surrogate Community in the Your Journey App®. You should always be mindful that the courts can ask for additional evidence of your expenses, so our experienced team of surrogates will help you calculate and evidence them accurately. 

Parental order

When a child is born through surrogacy in the UK, the Intended Parent should apply to the family court for a parental order. This document transfers legal parenthood from the surrogate (and their spouse if applicable) to the intended parent(s) and can only be done with the consent of the surrogate.  If the child was born outside of the UK then a different court process will take place in the High Court for International Surrogacy.  This usually takes much longer than a UK Magistrate Court process.

This can’t take place until the child has been born and is done through the family court and a social worker appointed by them. They’re mostly straightforward and again having legal advice from the start of your journey is an important step to take in ensuring this is plain sailing. 

Rest assured at MSJ we’ve considered every step of the journey. The lawyers we work with are experienced and so are our membership team. They’ll help with all of your questions every step of the way, we’ve got you.