4 January 2012
Robert DeNiro and his wife Grace Hightower are the latest celebrity couple to have a baby through surrogacy. They recently announced the birth of their baby daughter, Helen Grace. Baby Helen is the couple’s second child, being a younger sister for their son Elliot aged 13. Robert DeNiro has further children with his former wife and girlfriend, two of whom are reported to have been born with the help of a surrogate mother.
They follow in the footsteps of other celebrity couples including Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, Elton John and David Furnish and Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick. Whilst the cost of surrogacy in the US, where these celebrities are understood to have entered into their surrogacy arrangements, is far from cheap and can cost tens of thousands of dollars, celebrities are increasingly embracing surrogacy as a way of having or expanding their family and raising the profile of surrogacy across the world. Surrogacy is increasingly being viewed as a flexible family building option, particularly for those couples unable to carry their own pregnancy and same-sex couples and is often combined with the use of donor eggs or sperm and IVF.
The English family court has now endorsed a small number of international surrogacy arrangements involving British couples who have entered into surrogacy arrangements with foreign surrogates abroad. However, any cross-border surrogacy arrangement raises a number of complex issues, reflecting the international dimension, the commercial nature of the agreement which offends domestic public policy designed to prevent commercial surrogacy in the UK, the often complicated immigration, citizenship and nationality considerations and the need to protect the best interests of the surrogate born child or children, the surrogate parents and the intended parents. The English family court continues to highlight the need for prospective surrogate parents to take great care over the relevant legal issues and ensure they obtain expert legal help and assistance so they can navigate a safe path home to the UK with their surrogate born baby after the birth and legally protect their family and parental rights in the UK.
Need an expert surrogacy lawyer or a fertility and family lawyer? If you would like to discuss your family building needs or you would like specialist fertility, surrogacy and family law advice and representation contact Louisa Ghevaert by email louisa@louisaghevaertassociates.co.uk or by telephone +44 (0)20 7965 8399.
