Re an Adoption Application (Surrogacy), 11 March 1987.
The Court was asked to make an adoption order in favor of a couple who had paid another woman to bear a child for them using the husband's sperm. The Court made the order, noting that the Surrogacy Arrangements Act 1985, which bans commercial surrogacy agencies, negotiations, and advertisements had not been enacted at the time of this arrangement. It also held that the arrangement did not violate the Adoption Act 1958, which prohibits payments or rewards for or in consideration of adoption, because the payment to the surrogate was not made in contemplation of adoption. Moreover, it concluded that even if the payment had been made in contemplation of adoption, the Adoption Act gave the Court the power to authorize the payment retrospectively.
D000300:Adoption; D001519:Behavior; D002668:Child Rearing; D019049:Developed Countries; D005060:Europe; D007603:Jurisprudence; D012098:Reproduction; D012099:Reproductive Techniques; D013533:Gestational Carriers; D006113:United Kingdom
Adoption--legal aspects; Behavior; Child Rearing; Court Decision; Developed Countries; Europe; Northern Europe; Reproduction; Reproductive Technologies; Surrogate Mothers--legal aspects; United Kingdom