More than 100 single men over the age of 40 applied to be legally recognized as fathers to babies born through surrogacy in the UK, according to data from the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service reported by The Times.
The data also showed a near-tripling in same-sex couples applying for parental orders over the past decade. In 2019, single adults were given the same rights as couples to use surrogate mothers. While commercial surrogacy is illegal in the UK, British nationals are permitted to bring children born abroad — in countries where paid surrogacy is legal — back to the UK and seek parental recognition through the courts.
Lexi Ellingsworth, co-founder of Stop Surrogacy Now, stated: “Children are not a lifestyle purchase and pregnancy and labour is not a service.” Surrogacy Concern founder Helen Gibson said: “Men are effectively going abroad baby shopping, with total disregard for the baby’s need for their mother and the woman who is being subjected to a higher-risk pregnancy and financial and physical exploitation.”
The figures arrive as global concern over commercial surrogacy continues to grow. The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, Reem Alsalem, called last year for the worldwide eradication of surrogacy in all its forms, branding it “exploitative” and “commodifying and objectifying women’s bodies.” She rejected the notion that people have “a right to rent out a womb and then remove a child from their mother,” adding: “It’s just insane how this has been allowed to happen.”
The data shows a system drifting far from its original intent. Children have a natural right to their mother. A legal framework that enables middle-aged men to purchase that relationship away — across international borders, with minimal scrutiny — is not a progressive achievement. It is an industry built on the exploitation of women and the manufactured motherlessness of children.