Penny Booth: In place of what, exactly?

Surrogate; deputy... substitute. (The concise Oxford Dictionary). A substitute - for what exactly? One needs to ask.

A week or two ago we had the media splashed with the story of the Elton John and partner baby born of a surrogate mother (not sure if that was really a ‘surrogate' or not but if a donated egg rather than the surrogate's own was used then it was) where Elton John and his partner would bring up the child born from the sperm of one of them. I am happy for them particularly if they carry out their laudable intentions of bringing up baby without too much influence on money and more on love with (rather than without) contact with the child's mother and acting qua family generally. Here's hoping.

Surrogacy in this country ought to be examined again in detail - as a matter of urgency. It is believed to be far more common than...

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