Couple allowed to raise children born to Indian surrogates

An English couple who paid Indian mothers to have their babies were today given leave to bring them up as their own under a landmark judgment from one of Britain's top judges.

In the High Court, Sir Nicholas Wall said the payment of 230,000 rupees (£3,015) each to the two Indian surrogates was "not of such magnitude to overbear the wills of the surrogates" and granted parental orders.

The couple, identified only as Mr and Mrs A, paid a total of £27,405 in medical and care costs after travelling to India because of a lack of surrogate mothers in the UK. Mr A is the father of both children and the same anonymous egg donor was used in both cases. The children, a boy X and a girl Y, were born within days of each other and are now just over a year old.

Both children are living with Mr and Mrs A in the UK and the couple applied to the court for parental orders under the 2008 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act. Sir Nicholas said Mr A was 47 and had three children from a previous relationship who live with their mother. Mrs A is 41 and has two daughters from a previous marriage. Their relationship began in 2002 and they married in October 2008.

But after five years of trying for children together, involving surgery and fertility treatment, they decided to investigate surrogacy.

They were advised to try India after being told there was a three-year waiting list in the UK.

Mr and Mrs A took over the care of the children following the births and both children were given British passports and allowed to leave India.

Sir Nicholas said Mr and Mrs A who gave evidence before him "struck me as entirely genuine and straightforward people". He said the legal question was whether the payments made to the surrogates "fall foul" of the Act and went beyond "reasonable expenses".

He added: "It is plainly in the interests of these two children that they should be brought up by Mr and Mrs A as their parents."