British couple, 72, win court fight to be parents of US-born surrogate toddler

Two 72-year-olds have been made the legal parents of a 14-month-old boy who was born using a in the States.

In a ruling last month, Mrs Justice Gwynneth Knowles said that the retired husband and wife had used his sperm and a donor egg to conceive the child, known as B, paying more than £150,000 to a surrogate and agency in California.

The couple, who cannot be named and have cared for the boy since birth, asked the High Court for a parental order in July 2024, which was granted in March.

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Giving her reasons for granting the order in the written ruling, the judge said that the "appropriate" arrangements had been made in case one of the pair died or became incapacitated before the child was an adult, describing B as a "much loved and cherished little boy".

She also said that it was "not the purpose of this judgment to moralise about the wisdom of having a baby through surrogacy at an advanced age", but that the court should make sure that the child's future care had been planned "in case the worst should happen".

Mrs Justice Gwynneth Knowles said: "It is an undeniable fact that, when B goes to school at the age of five, they will likely both be 76 years old and both will likely be 82 years old when B starts secondary school. Put starkly, Mr and Mrs K will both be 89 years old when B reaches his majority.

"They have begun parenting at a time in their lives when, despite their current good health, it is foreseeable that their health will decline and that one or both of them will become seriously incapacitated or die before B reaches his majority."

In her 12-page ruling, the judge said that the couple previously had a son in 1993 through IVF who had died shortly before his 27th birthday from cancer, adding that the pair were "adamant" that having B was not an attempt to replace their older son.

Mrs Justice Gwynneth Knowles said it was best for the boy's welfare to make the retired couple his legal parents, adding: "The absence of a parental order would deny B the social and emotional benefits of the formal and informal recognition of his relationship and family life with Mr and Mrs K."

The judge also said she had drawn attention to the "reality of what is likely to befall" the child, "namely the experience of loss and grief".

She continued: "That experience may strike B at a time in his childhood when he is ill-prepared to understand or come to terms with it, upending his daily life and placing him in the care of adults to whom he is not emotionally close.

"No matter how fit a person of Mr and Mrs K's age may be now, health and life itself are undoubtedly at the mercy of an ageing process which becomes more ever more cruel and capricious as the years go by."

America is consistently the most popular international surrogacy destination for British and UK-resident intended parents.

According to English Family Court statistics, around a hundred children each year born through US surrogacy are granted a UK parental order to secure their parentage and British nationality.

It makes the States the place of birth for around half of all children granted UK parental orders following international surrogacy, with the other half born across dozens of different and constantly shifting destinations.