The award of damages to enable surrogacy

Given the nebulous nature of surrogacy law in the UK and the decision in Briody v St Helen's and Knowsley Area Health Authority [2001] EWCA Civ 1010 [2001] 2 FLR 1094 with its confusing obiter dicta it is somewhat surprising that the funding of surrogacy for an infertile young woman was included in the heads of damages in the decision in XX v Whittington Hospital Trust [2017] EWHC 2318 (QB).  

The facts

Between 2008 and 2013 the claimant XX who was aged twenty-nine had regularly complained of gynaecological symptoms in medical consultations at the Whittington Hospital Trust in London. In spite of undergoing smear tests which were followed up with biopsies no diagnosis was made of an invasive cancer of her cervix until the summer of 2013. Major surgery took place and was followed by chemo-radiotherapy which left XX not only incapable of bearing children but also with severe damage to her bladder bowel and vagina as well as a premature menopause. Had the cancer been diagnosed earlier less damaging treatment would have been possible and XX might have been able to conceive and give birth to...

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