3 September 2026
Louisa Ghevaert was quoted in The Times today discussing recent data on surrogacy released by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass). The article “Surge in single men over 40 pursuing fatherhood through surrogacy” reports increasing trends in single men, gay men and heterosexual couples having surrogate babies.
The article reports that between 2019 and 2025 170 single men made applications for parental orders for their surrogate born child. It goes on to say that 83 of those applications were made by men aged 40 to 49 and 24 applications were made by men aged 50 to 59. The article also reports that the number of parental order applications by gay male couples has nearly tripled over the last ten years from 70 in 2015 to 204 in 2025. It goes on to say that the numbers of heterosexual couples applying for parental orders for their surrogate born children increased by 36 percent from 225 to 307 over the same period. Furthermore, it reports that surrogate babies born to foreign surrogates have increased by 136 percent (more than doubled) over the last ten years increasing from 151 parental order applications in 2015 to 357 in 2025.
Louisa was pleased to join the debate and discuss increasing trends in surrogacy as follows:
“The solicitor Louisa Ghevaert, a surrogacy law expert, said the rise in gay and single men becoming the legal parents of surrogate babies “reflects a more progressive and inclusive approach to surrogacy in the UK”.
She said: “This new data from Cafcass demonstrates an increasing trend over the last decade in people from all walks of life having children through UK or overseas surrogacy arrangements.
The fact that parental order applications for surrogate-born children by gay male couples have virtually tripled in the last ten years ties in with greater acceptance of same-sex relationships and family building and the introduction of equality legislation in the UK. This has brought them significantly closer in number to parental order applications by heterosexual couples.”
Surrogacy Law in the UK
These increasing trends in UK and cross-border surrogacy bring into focus the importance of reforming outdated surrogacy law in the UK. Existing law was first put into place over thirty-five years ago at a time when understanding and take up of assisted conception and surrogacy was limited, prior to the introduction of the internet and before celebrity endorsement of surrogacy raised public awareness. Back then, the legal framework was intended to be used by only a small number of heterosexual married intended parents who were entering into altruistic UK surrogacy arrangements, predominantly with a friend or relative, and it has not kept adequate pace with reproductive and societal advances and the realities of modern family building. Law in the UK treats the surrogate as legal mother of the surrogate born child at birth and her spouse/civil partner as legal father/second legal parent no matter where in the world the surrogate conceives a pregnancy and regardless of the biological composition of the embryo. This means that intended parents need to apply for a post-birth parental order in the UK to extinguish the legal status of the surrogate and her spouse, re-assign legal parentage and obtain a birth certificate naming them as their surrogate born child’s legal parents. The parental order court process can take 6 to 10 months or longer and this leaves intended parents without parental responsibility to enable them to make important welfare decisions for their child (e.g. decisions about medical treatment or vaccinations), creating legal limbo in the meantime.
As such, there are ongoing calls for surrogacy law reform in the UK by intended parents, surrogates and stakeholders and Parliament will debate surrogacy law reform on 7 September 2026. Law reform is needed and the Law Commissions of England and Wales and Scotland have put forward recommendations for a new pathway to parenthood in surrogacy cases. If their proposals for law reform are adopted, this would introduce a new robust legal framework for domestic (UK) surrogacy arrangements which would legally recognise the intended parents as legal parents at birth of their child (subject to a surrogate having the right to withdraw her consent). This pathway would also introduce clarity over permitted surrogacy payments and important screening and safeguards in the form of medical and criminal records checks, as well as independent legal advice for all surrogates and intended parents and counselling. Furthermore, parties entering into surrogacy agreements under the proposed new pathway would be overseen by Regulated Surrogacy Organisations (RSOs) who in turn would be regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). Moreover, it would lead to the introduction of a new central Surrogacy Register so that surrogate born children could trace their birth origins later in life.
Click here to read the full article in The Times (paywall applies).
Click here to learn more about surrogacy law in England and Wales.
Click here to learn more about international surrogacy law.
