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.