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Single parents, surrogacy arrangements and parental orders: the current situation

© Copyright LexisNexis 2026. All rights reserved.
Date:17 NOV 2017
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Emma Willing
Managing associate

Whilst it is possible in the UK for single parents to enter into surrogacy arrangements, UK law currently precludes single parents from obtaining parental orders in surrogacy cases. However, this discriminatory lacuna in the law is set to be remedied.

In the UK, a child can only have two legal parents. In a surrogacy arrangement, the surrogate mother will automatically be the child's legal mother at birth. If the surrogate mother is married or in a civil partnership, her husband, wife or civil partner will be the second legal parent.

Read the full article in Family Law Journal on L+UK® (subject to subscription) here.

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