DIY surrogate pregnancy causes chaos as mother told she has no legal rights over child

Women have been warned of the dangers of informal surrogacy agreements, after a woman was told she had no parental rights to a baby that she's asked her friend to mother with her husband sperm.

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by Ellie Hooper |
Published on

Unable to have kids of her own, the Woman A asked a close friend if she would be inseminated at home with her husband's sperm.

The friend, Woman B, agreed, and gave birth to a baby boy.

However, when Woman A's marriage broke down just a few month's after B had given birth, she found she had no legal rights over the child because she was neither the child's biological nor legal mother.

Woman A was told she had no legal rights over the child
Woman A was told she had no legal rights over the child

The judge in the case described it as a 'cautionary tale' against informal surrogacy agreements and urged couples to use regulated fertility clinics.

Woman B and the father are named on the birth certificate of the child - and are therefore legally his parents.

Woman A was also told she was not allowed to formally adopt the child - leaving her with no legal hold over the toddler.

Social workers and lawyers have apparently worked hard to find a solution for the unconventional family - and have finally managed to arrange shared care arrangements.

Woman A had now been recognised as being parentally responsible for the child, joint with her ex-husband, and Woman B - despite being biologically the child's mother, cannot exercise her parental rights except for with written permission from court.

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