Surrogacy in the UK

The Center for Bioethics and Culture has submitted a response to a new surrogacy consultation in the UK, hosted by the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST). POST is a parliamentary service which exists to distribute academic research and briefings (POSTnotes) to parliamentarians. POST has launched a consultation on surrogacy and we have filed our response on the dangers of surrogacy (below)

Surrogacy raises serious ethical, social, and medical concerns. The Center for Bioethics and Culture has documented physical harms to women and children in surrogate pregnancies (Fell & Lahl, Dignity, 2022). A 2024 report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls calls for surrogacy to be banned globally due to its links to exploitation and trafficking.

Despite a domestic ban on commercial surrogacy, UK parents can still engage in commercial surrogacy abroad—despite significant, well-known problems of exploitation and coercion in the global commercial surrogacy market, driving exploitation in other countries. Parental orders in the UK have quadrupled over the past 12 years. UK agencies must be non-profit, yet some offer financial incentives and operate abroad where women are paid less than £12,000 per pregnancy.

Newer studies show increased risks of severe pregnancy complications (ACP, 2024) and new-onset mental illness among surrogate mothers (JAMA, 2024). The Law Commission’s proposed reforms shift power to commissioning parents, reduce protections for surrogate mothers, and expand agency control, while removing CAFCASS oversight. Surrogacy undermines maternal-child bonding, commodifies women, and physically harms mothers and children.