5 days ago
People over 80 applying to UK courts to be parents of children born via surrogate
Data from the UK Children and Family Court Advisory Service (Cafcass) show a handful of octogenarians were among the applications between 2020 and 2025.
Rising numbers of people in their 50s, 60s and 70s are also applying to be legal parents of children born through surrogacy, via the family court.
Surrogacy allows a woman to become pregnant and give birth on behalf of a couple, who then become the child's legal parents.
Cafcass did not tell The Times, which submitted a UK freedom of information request to the agency, exactly how many applications there were from people over 80 as there were fewer than six in each year during the period. The agency said the figures 'could potentially identify the individuals involved'.
Applications from men in their 50s rose from 44 in 2020 to 95 in 2025, the figures show. There were 416 parental order applications from males and females in their 50s between 2020 and 2025. There were also 43 from men in their 60s. Cafcass said there had been 1,991 applications for parental orders between 2020 and 2024.
Helen Gibson, the founder of the campaign group Surrogacy Concern, told the Telegraph: 'We are appalled to see parental order applications for surrogate-born babies being made by people in their 60s, 70s and 80s: there can be no justification for such a selfish act.
'It is even more concerning to see that these figures are rising consistently year by year.
'There is no upper age limit for parental orders or pursuit of surrogacy in the UK or in the majority of countries British people are travelling to in order to have surrogate-born children.
'Surrogacy does not centre the rights of the child or their needs, and we are in danger of a new public scandal unfolding where children are treated as commodities: trafficked across oceans before becoming carers for elderly parents who will not live to see them reach the age of majority.
'Government must strongly consider whether or not any of this is in the child's interests. Most surrogacy cases which come before our courts are now dominated by foreign cases, usually babies born to mothers in commercial surrogacy arrangements which would be illegal in the UK, and increasingly to older parents.
'The government must act urgently to empower the courts to block these parental order applications and ban the pursuit of surrogacy abroad by Britons,' she added.
