Court grants surrogacy order to 72-year-olds

A British couple aged 72 have been awarded a parental order for a child born through a commercial surrogacy arrangement in California, prompting sharp criticism from campaigners who say the ruling exposes serious ethical and legal flaws in the UK’s approach to international surrogacy. The child, now 14 months old, was born in 2024 to a surrogate mother in the United States after the couple arranged for an embryo—created using donor eggs and the commissioning father’s sperm—to be implanted following the death of their only child, a 26-year-old son, in 2022. In April 2025, Mrs Justice Knowles granted the parental order in the family division of the High Court, despite acknowledging the “undeniable fact” that the couple would likely be 82 when the child enters secondary school and 89 by the time he reaches adulthood. The judge expressed concern about the risk of serious incapacity or death before the child reaches his majority, but nonetheless concluded: “Though the making of a parental order does not change what they feel for him and what he feels for them, it is nevertheless a cause for celebration.” The couple have employed a nanny five days a week and have appointed their late son’s friends as guardians in the event of their deaths. They did not tell the couple who were appointed as guardians of their plans to embark on surrogacy until after the child had been born. Helen Gibson, founder of Surrogacy Concern, condemned the ruling: “We are appalled to see a parental order awarded in this case. This child would have been better off being placed by the local authority into the care of another family, not being left to be raised by people likely to be dead before he reaches the age of majority. Commissioning a child through surrogacy is always unethical and exploitative, but to do this at the age of 72, following the death of an adult son, is abhorrent and an abuse of this little boy.” She added that the majority of parental orders now involve babies born to surrogate mothers overseas, who are typically brought to the UK never to see their birth mothers—or egg donors—again. “We have written to the Government multiple times… and asked them to ban Britons from travelling abroad to pursue surrogacy. We have never received a response,” she said. Lexi Ellingsworth, co-founder of Stop Surrogacy Now UK, said the case highlighted “flaws in our current law and in proposed reforms recommended by the Law Commission. There are no upper age limits for commissioning parents in the UK, or for surrogate mothers, and the 'parental order pathway'… would continue to allow Britons to go abroad to buy babies.” She called for urgent legislative action to close what she described as an “appalling loophole.” The Department of Health and Social Care and the Home Office have not commented on the case.