Rising tide of divorce

#divorce rates increase according to official data just released.

http://bbc.in/1fybP6v . #familylaw

Natalie on BBC news to discuss sperm storage and the Beth Warren case

Natalie interviewed on BBC news this evening about sperm storage and the Beth Warren case.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03t6xv3/Look_East_East_04_02_2014/ …

Widow fights to use husband's stored sperm.

Widow fights to use husband's stored sperm after statutory 10 year storage period expires http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25188341 …

UK parents expecting four 'twiblings' through surrogacy in India

The BBC has reported a surrogacy case (‘The couple having four babies through two surrogates’) involving a British couple who are anticipating the birth of four babies through surrogacy - two sets of twins being carried simultaneously by two Indian surrogate mothers.  Natalie was interviewed for the piece, by Poonam Taneja, and comments on our experience on the ground and what these arrangements are being called:

“Lawyer Natalie Gamble confirms there are similar cases but she believes it is a trend which is largely unique to the sub-continent. “We’ve seen it a few times. I wouldn’t say it’s routine but it’s not massively uncommon in India,” she says. In fact there is even a new term coined for these babies – twiblings. “They’re not quite twins and not quite siblings either,” she says.

It is indeed not the first time we have seen twiblings result from surrogacy in India - the use of more than one surrogate at the same time is an option presented to many of our clients going to India.  Embryos are created (either using the couple’s own gametes, or with the help of a donor) and then transferred into several surrogate mothers at the same time with a view to maximising the chance of a successful pregnancy.  If both surrogates get pregnant, the babies may be born at slightly different times, even though they were conceived as twins.

We understand that parents who have had long and difficult journeys are desperate to achieve a pregnancy, and that many do think through carefully the consequences of having many children at once.  But where multiple embryos are transferred, there can be significant risks involved for the parents, the babies and the surrogate mothers, and those involved may not be given enough information about the risks before they make a decision about how to proceed.  Indian surrogate twiblings is the product of an unregulated system and a world away from the strictly controlled fertility treatment which takes place under HFEA regulation in the UK, where there are strict controls on how many embryos can be transferred in order to avoid multiple pregnancies, and rigorous measures in place to make sure everyone involved gets the right information and gives full informed consent.  It is something parents should bear in mind before they embark on surrogacy in India.

There is more information on our website about international surrogacy law and immigration.

Natalie on the Today Programme – who should have the rights where a surrogate baby is disabled?

Natalie was interviewed by James Naughtie on this morning’s BBC Radio 4 Today Programme about surrogacy. The programme covered a US surrogacy case which hit the news after a US surrogate mother refused to terminate her pregnancy at 21 weeks when it was discovered that the baby would be born severely disabled.

In the UK, surrogacy law gives all the rights to the woman who carries the pregnancy – she is the legal mother. Although a case like this has never happened in the UK, if it did there would be no doubt (as there was under US law) that the surrogate mother would hold all the cards. But is this the right approach?

In practice, we know on the ground that surrogacy disputes are incredibly rare. For the vast majority of cases, it would make more sense for the intended (biological) parents, rather than the surrogate, to have legal responsibilities much earlier – it’s what everyone involved wants, and the long delay transferring parenthood leaves children vulnerable for far too long. And where there are disputes, we need a more sophisticated approach to balancing the interests of all involved – surrogate, parents and child.

The real lesson of this case is that we can avoid problems like this by giving the right support at the start. Parents and surrogates need to communicate clearly, and those with radically mismatched views on termination should not proceed together. That is why it is so crazy that UK surrogacy law goes out of its way to deny those going into surrogacy arrangements the support they need. Under UK law, surrogacy contracts are unenforceable and illegal for lawyers to draft, and professional matching and brokering services are prohibited by criminal law. It’s time for that to change.

There is more information about surrogacy law and our campaigning work on our website.