Surrogate children left in limbo after ruling on residence

Surrogate children left in limbo after ruling on residence

Surrogate children who are the subject of international abduction proceedings have no fixed country of residence and as such are not covered by child abduction laws under the Hague Convention, the High Court ruled last week.

In W&B v H, Californian couple W and B entered into a surrogacy agreement - legal in California but not in this country - with an English woman, H, who eventually gave birth to twins in England last year.H wanted the twins to remain resident with her in England, whereas W and B were claiming that the case fell within the boundaries of international abduction laws, and the twins should be returned to the US.Last week, Mr Justice Hedley ruled that the children have no fixed country of residence and so are excluded from the Hague Convention.

Marcus Dearle, the partner at London firm Withers who acted for H, said laws were needed urgently to prevent cases such as this from happening again.They should address the conflict between English and Californian law and the need for a treaty to regulate future surrogacy agreements, he said.Victoria MacCallum