At the moment, when a child is born to a surrogate, the surrogate is registered as the child’s “mother”. To become the child’s legal parents the people who intend to be the child’s parents must obtain a Parental Order, which is recorded in a register. The Registrar General then issues a new certificate. This is not a birth certificate but an official copy of the relevant entry in the Parental Order register. When the surrogate-born person is 18, they can use the certified copy to trace their original birth certificate and identify the surrogate who bore them.
The Law Commissions of England and Wales and Scotland have proposed a change in the law which would do away with the original birth certificate. When a child is born to a surrogate, the intending parents would be recorded as the mother and father. The surrogate, and the fact of surrogacy, would be erased. Our proposal would mean that, whether or not such a change happens, the identity of the surrogate (and the donor where one was used) would be recorded.
Submission to the Law Commission
In 2021 the Law Commission of England and Wales will undertake its 14th programme, where it considers what changes should be made to the law. To see more about our proposals for reform, go the Our Proposal tab on the home page of this website. To see our full submission to the Law Commission, click here.
Birth Registration Reform Group UK 