Children's Voices in Surrogacy Law: Phase One Preliminary Report

Children’s Voices in Surrogacy Law (CVSL) is an empirical project that aims to gather and analyse children’s views on surrogacy law. This Report sets out the preliminary findings of the focus groups from PHASE ONE. PHASE ONE of the project involved children and young people with experience of surrogacy who were aged 8-17. The goal was to ascertain their views about the current law and the extent to which law reform is required. Three groups of children and young people were involved: 1. Children and young people born through surrogacy, 2. Children and young people whose mother had a child through surrogacy or was planning to do so, 3. Children and young people whose family member had a child through surrogacy. There were three topics chosen for consideration: 1. Parenthood, 2. Contributions to surrogates, 3. Origin information and contact. Data were collected in two forms: a) focus groups, and b) creative contributions (drawings, paintings, plasticine models, digital content) on the theme what surrogacy means to me. Participants were recruited through various methods. This included placing online calls on social media, sending emails to the four non-profit organisations recognised by the Department of Health and Social Care (COTS, SurrogacyUK, Brilliant Beginnings, My Surrogacy Journey), and contacting independent surrogates. FIGURE ONE (below) presents a sample advertisement placed via social media for focus group recruitment. Additionally, calls were placed through the websites and emailing lists of the Institute of Medical Ethics (IME), the Society of Legal Scholars (SLS), and the Socio-Legal Association (SLSA).