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Many believe that surrogacy in the UK puts “friendship first” and is confined to families and close friends, but the latest court ruling involving an anonymous surrogate mother suggests there is more to this than is first thought.
The case in the Family Court involves a UK couple with roots in Nigeria. Husband “B” and wife “C” came to the end of the options presented to them by fertility doctors here, so they turned to Lifelink Fertility Clinic in Lagos, Nigeria. The solution from a Dr Kemi at this clinic came in the form of not one but two women, and a third woman provided an egg.
Women’s bodies are the very foundations of the surrogacy industry so of course they are the prime source for their “useful” reproductive organs that conceive, grow and birth babies. We don’t know what methods Dr Kemi used to recruit the two surrogate mothers, named only as GH and GH2, but one of these women had a baby girl for B and C and Dr Kemi claimed that the protection of her anonymity was paramount. Direct contact was not permitted and this seems to be something the couple were happy with, until they applied for a passport for the child. It was then that the realisation set in that they needed to know who the mother was after all, because they needed to ask for her consent to secure parental rights for themselves.
Foreigners exploiting a weak legal system in Nigeria and its citizens further complicates the nation’s human rights goals and development. It is concerning to hear that British couples are beginning to take advantage of weak laws and legal loopholes and make Nigeria a base for reproductive exploitation.
It’s clear that UK Family Judges are faced with impossible decisions when presented with a baby or toddler who has been born through these circumstances. It’s clear there have been questionable actions from commissioning parents and the straight up refusal from overseas clinics to cooperate with surrogacy laws here, but the child already exists.
British citizens cannot adopt from Nigeria and this has been the case since 2021. This restriction was put in place due to child welfare and safeguarding concerns within the Nigerian adoption system, which led to a decision to no longer issue certificates of eligibility for children from Nigeria. But surrogacy? That has the green light but these recent cases suggest we should be hitting the brakes.
Could the beginnings of a ban on international surrogacy start with a block list, as it is with adoption?
These are questions that this government will have to face sooner rather than later as Brits continue to go abroad for cheap deals. “B”, who owns three properties, and “C” paid just £6,600 for this baby girl. How much of that was paid to anonymous surrogate mother GH1 for her womb rental and “birthing service”, we can’t be sure.
Source: It is time to close the Nigerian surrogacy loophole | Lexi Ellingsworth | The Critic Magazine