SerpApi.Org
The surrogacy trade in the UK is booming. Currently, the law officially allows only “altruistic surrogacy”, where the birth mother can only be paid expenses. However, there is no legal ceiling on these payments which typically range between £12,000 and £35,000.
Figures from the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service show that in 2025, more than 980 applications for parental orders reached the family courts. Just 150 of the children concerned were born in the UK, with the remainder being delivered in commercial surrogacy hotspots, including Mexico and Nigeria.
Self-proclaimed experts have used these sharply rising numbers as leverage in calling on ministers for a change in the law, effectively demanding that all forms of surrogacy be allowed in the UK.
These “experts” are either commissioning parents, or profiteers (those making money from the baby trade) – but what we should be considering is the rights of the child, and those of the birth mother. It is heinous and inhumane to bring a baby into the world with the express intention of separating mother from child at birth.
Increasingly, today’s would-be commissioning parents are single men and older people – candidates likely to be considered ineligible for fostering or adoption. When we are considering further liberalising our laws to appease such people, we are on the road to sanctioning the commodification of babies and wombs.
Under English law, a child’s legal mother is the woman who gives birth to the child, regardless of whether or not it is genetically hers. An application for such a transfer of parental responsibility can be made only with the surrogate’s consent – but the decision hinges on what the court considers to be in the best interests of the child – not those of the surrogate mother.
In one recent case, a parental order was granted to a single man, despite his cocaine use. Another order was granted to a man investigated for rape. Safeguarding in surrogacy cases bears little resemblance to that in adoption and fostering cases. The risks are enormous – and further liberalisation will only make matters worse.
Brilliant Beginnings, a UK-based surrogacy agency, recruits and matches surrogates in Britain. The service includes “surrogate retreats” and “milestone gifts” such as chocolates, flowers and even BellyBuds.
There is a ban on advertising surrogacy in the UK. Yet foreign commercial companies, including Men Having Babies, are allowed to hold events and advertise their services to commissioning parents in the UK. And despite the UK ban on commercial surrogacy, British agencies can operate overseas programmes, advertising them freely on social media to arrange private surrogacy agreements for UK citizens abroad. A flagrant violation of the law, but nothing is ever done to stop it.
The only case of genuine altruistic surrogacy I have come across in the UK was a disaster. One woman, who (using her own egg) carried a baby for a gay male couple and initially signed away her parental rights. However, on appeal the court reversed the order, because the judge recognised that she was not of sound mind when she agreed to it. She told me that despite the men’s promises that the child would always know his mother, she was frozen out of his life as soon as they became his legal parents.
The UK surrogacy market is a mass of contradictions. But the global market is the wild west.
Mexico City is home to My Surrogacy Journey (MSJ), the first British surrogacy agency to establish an overseas office, set up to provide a rapid commercial brokerage service. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office agents met representatives of MSJ at the British Embassy in Mexico City, presumably to help smooth the way for people wanting to take babies from Mexico to Britain.
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This legal loophole allows commercial British-based agencies to set up satellite offices in countries where commercial surrogacy is legal. This encourages UK commissioning parents to shop for babies abroad, enabling infants to be taken from their birth mothers and brought into the UK via arrangements that would not be permitted domestically.
In the United States, there are stories of Chinese billionaires commissioning as many as 20 male children for purposes of business succession. Rather than relaxing our laws, the UK needs to focus on disrupting – and ultimately, bringing an end to – baby trafficking.
