What are the key points?
- The surrogate (the woman who gives birth to the child) is the legal mother upon birth.
- Where the surrogate is married or in a civil partnership, the surrogate’s partner will be the second legal parent - unless they can provide appropriate evidence to demonstrate a factual basis for the partner not consenting, or there is judicial separation/a separation order in force.
- Where the surrogate is single (or where their partner did not consent to treatment), one of the intended parents can be the second legal parent of the child when born.
- There are different routes to legal parenthood:
- the intended biological father will automatically be recognised as the legal parent under common law; or
- one of the intended parents can be nominated as the second legal parent, (if certain conditions and the relevant consents are in place).
- These changes do not affect the parental order process which transfers parenthood from the surrogate to both the intended parents commissioning the surrogacy arrangement.
- Please see Guidance Note 6 and 14 of the HFEA Code of Practice for the relevant legislation and guidance for clinics regarding surrogacy.
How does this affect clinics?
The two areas affecting clinic practice will be registration form submission and parenthood consent.
Register form submission
The main responsibilities for clinics in terms of Register form submission is that of ensuring that intended parents who are supplying gametes are registered with the IP prefix to their donor code.
Pages 3 and 4 of the donor form are not required by us.
Parenthood consent
We have developed new parenthood consent forms to reflect the different routes to legal parenthood in surrogacy.
Please note that the relevant consent forms must be completed before sperm, egg or embryo transfer.
Guidance on consent forms can be read here.
Patient FAQs
We have produced a set of frequently asked questions on surrogacy and legal parenthood.
Legal parenthood leaflet
More information on the issue of legal parenthood can be found in our leaflet:
Legal parenthood leaflet (PDF 6.19MB)