Surrogacy in UK-family member

[Pauleenka86]

Hi ladies,

My sister in law just told me she doesn't mind to do surrogacy for us... She had 5 kids so far and she knows we have been struggling for last 7 year's.

She is my partner's sister. I mean I would never even think of surrogacy before however if this could be my last option I think I would reconsider. Does any of you ladies knows the process and prices if you have family member as a surrogate ??

[Faith27]

Hi what a lovely offer but one that you need to think very carefully about and do lots of research on I would suggest!

As far as I'm aware, paying for surrogacy in this country isn't allowed (except for reasonable expenses) but I'm not 100%.

The second thing that you may want to look into is legal rights - I believe I read somewhere a while back that the 'birth' mother - the surrogate, is the childs legal parent at birth. So absolute worst case scenario, this perdon has the legal right to keep the baby even if it's not exactly her DNA as in egg used. You would need to apply for a parental order if thr child had your DNA. Again please don't quote me, I'm just offering up my very vague info as suggestions for you to research because I noticed no one else had commented so far.

While I imagine you would never assume your sister in law would want to keep your baby (if she had the option - again I really don't know if this is true so please don't bank on what I'm saying) its something you have to consider especially given the closeness of your surrogate.

I hope the information im sharing isn't absolute rubbish - I've certainly read it through research as a last resort for me and my partner somewhere. I just hope by commenting it's made you want to look into things a bit further perhaps.

The opportunity is amazing and it's such a selfless act for her to offer so I doubt any issues would arise but it doesn't mean that you shouldn't be aware of them to help make such an important decision.

Best of luck!

Xxx

[Faith27 in reply to Faith27]

To follow on from this, this gov.uk page has info about surrogacy legal rights to the baby here: gov.uk/legal-rights-when-us...

[Faith27 in reply to Faith27]

And to further follow on, this is the info here on the gov.uk website about paying a surrogate:

Surrogacy agreements are not enforceable by UK law, even if you have a signed document with your surrogate and have paid their expenses. You cannot pay a surrogate in the UK, except for their reasonable expenses.

Hope this all helps, there is an organisation called surrogacyuk that may be worth talking to for more info and support too.

[Orla9298]

I’d suggest you join the surrogacy uk Facebook group - be careful that it’s the right one as there are copies. It’s so useful and if you post on there everyone will be able to help answer your questions.

That’s really kind about your sister in law, you’re only allowed to pay reasonable expenses, but there will be other costs such as legal costs for obtaining the parental order after birth.

Lots of luck whatever you do xx