Judge rules you don’t have to be a couple to have a surrogate baby
by Martin Beckford, Mailonline:
Single parents will be allowed to bring up children born to surrogate mothers for the first time, after a High Court ruling critics described as an assault on traditional families.
Until now, only couples have been able to become the legal parents of surrogate babies – as Ministers insisted it was important for children to be raised by two people in an ‘enduring relationship’.
But Britain’s strict law on the matter is set to be scrapped, after a judge ruled that it violated the human rights of a single man who had a son using a US surrogate.
In the ground-breaking judgment, President of the Family Division, Sir James Munby, decreed that the ban on single men and women becoming parents of surrogate babies contravened the right to a family life and the right to freedom from discrimination enshrined in European law.
The High Court heard the Department of Health now agrees that the law must be changed – but because surrogacy is a ‘controversial’ area of social policy it must be debated in Parliament first.
Family campaigners last night criticised the judge’s decision.
Labour MP and former Social Security Minister Frank Field told The Mail on Sunday: ‘In all these decisions, the natural rights of children get overlooked.
‘Parenting is a huge job and it’s about time that children are put centre stage, not selfish adults.’
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