Rise in overseas surrogates ‘increases risk of stateless babies’

Surrogates normally carry pregnancies from donor eggs or the egg of someone who wishes to become a parent. Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Surrogates normally carry pregnancies from donor eggs or the egg of someone who wishes to become a parent. Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images Rise in overseas surrogates ‘increases risk of stateless babies’ Calls grow for global regulation as rising numbers of westerners use surrogates in countries with different laws Why Mexico is at the heart of ethical debate over global surrogacy Why one couple are pinning their surrogacy hopes on Mexico The rise in the use of surrogates abroad is leaving more babies at risk of becoming stateless, experts have said, amid growing calls for urgent global regulation of the practice. The warning follows the suspension of a 15-year effort by The Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) to establish a global surrogacy convention, which was paused due to divisions among member states. With more older women, gay couples and people affected by infertility seeking to become parents, increasing numbers of babies are being born to surrogates around the world. Surrogates normally carry pregnancies from a donor egg or the egg of someone who wishes to become a parent. Laws differ from country to country, with some such as Italy banning the practice outright, while others, including some US states, allow commercial surrogacy. The UK only allows “altruistic” surrogacy, where surrogates cannot be paid more than their expenses from carrying the pregnancy. UK surrogacy agencies argue that an outdated legal framework at home is pushing couples to seek surrogates abroad, where regulations to protect surrogates from exploitation can be less robust or do not exist at all. Anti-surrogacy campaigners say the practice is fundamentally abusive in all cases and are pushing for a global ban. Prof Michael Hellner, who chaired the HCCH working group, said hugely differing opinions on the ethics of surrogacy between the member states involved meant the project to create a global framework on legal parentage in surrogacy cases had proved impossible. “I invested 10 years of my life into this project. But if there’s no political will, there’s absolutely no point in us spending more of people’s time and money,” he said. “The lack of coordination between states on this issue leads to problems for the children, and the risk of statelessness is increasing.” Hellner said the patchwork of cross-border surrogacy arrangements put babies at risk of “limping parentage” – where a child has different legal parents in different countries – and statelessness. Experts said statelessness could happen in cases where a country does not automatically grant nationality to a child born there, and where surrogacy is not legally recognised in either the country of birth or the child’s final destination. View image in fullscreen There is no data on the number of births by surrogacy