from The Christian Institute (Image: Wikimedia Creative Commons)
Two gay men have been made the legal parents of a boy, born as part of an illegal surrogacy arrangement involving sex selection.
The couple, referred to as D and C, currently live abroad but plan to return to the UK. D, who is a British citizen, was born in China. The men paid nearly £93,000 to a woman in a rural Chinese village to be a surrogate. They used genetic testing to prioritise the implantation of male embryos and asked for a “partial refund if a male child was not born”.
Despite surrogacy being illegal in China, and the UK banning surrogacy payments beyond reasonable expenses, a British family court ruled that a parental order was in the 20-month-old child’s “best interests”.
‘Profoundly troubling’
Mr Justice MacDonald “strongly” criticised D and C’s actions and said that authorising the commercial surrogacy payments should not be viewed as “a licence to engage in unlawful commercial surrogacy arrangements abroad”.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Lexi Ellingworth of Stop Surrogacy Now warned that the case “raises profoundly troubling questions of surrogacy here in the UK.