Healthcare Professionals

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What is surrogacy?

Surrogacy is a way for a childless couple to become parents, with a surrogate mother carrying their child.  It is legal in the UK provided that the surrogate receives no payment beyond her reasonable expenses.

Couples wanting to have a child in this way are referred to in the law as Intended Parents, or IPs.

There are two ways by which a surrogate mother can become pregnant: “straight” and “host” surrogacy.  Straight surrogacy is artificial insemination: the child is conceived from the surrogate’s own egg, using the male Intended Parent’s semen.  In host surrogacy the child is genetically unrelated to the surrogate: she carries an embryo created in an IVF clinic.  This embryo will either be made from the egg and sperm of the Intended Parents, or alternatively an egg donor may be used.

Once the baby is born, the IPs will leave hospital with the baby in their care.  With the consent of the surrogate mother, the IPs then apply to the family court for a Parental Order, which reassigns legal parenthood from the surrogate mother to them, permanently.