Legal vacuum around surrogate children

Children born through surrogacy face a further lengthy spell in legal limbo after the Supreme Court said it could not help a woman get lawful recognition as the mother of her surrogate-born twins.

The ruling, which reverses a High Court decision from last year, means possibly hundreds of women who have children through surrogacy remain without legal relationship to those children unless they are granted adoption or guardianship rights.

The Supreme Court said a legal vacuum existed around surrogacy and it had no legislative basis on which to grant the woman’s wish to be recorded as her twins’ mother on their birth certificates. However, the court also said there was no legal or constitutional obstacle to drawing up such legislation.