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Parental order time limits: policy – what policy?
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ELIZABETH ISAACS QC MATTHEW MAYNARD TRACY LAKIN and DYMPNA HOWELLS St Ives Chambers BirminghamThe law in relation to surrogacy has been continually developing since the introduction of the Surrogacy Arrangements Act in 1985. Since the inception of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act in 1990 it has always been understood that any application for a parental order which extinguishes parental responsibility of surrogate parents and transfers it to commissioning parents must be made within the first six months of a child’s life. The same legal provision was transposed to s 54(3) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (HFEA 2008). However in the recent decision of
Re X (A Child) (Surrogacy: Time limit) EWHC 3135 (Fam) the President of the Family Division concluded that s 54(3) HFEA 2008 does not have the effect of preventing the court making an order merely because the application is made after the expiration of the six month period.
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