FILM: Frozen Fertility – The Challenges of Storing Eggs, Sperm and Embryos (Part 2)

On 6th June, at a conference entitled ‘Reforming Surrogacy Laws: Future Directions and Possibilities’, the Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission will launch their public consultation on reforming the UK’s outdated surrogacy laws. Surrogacy UK has long campaigned for legal reform and was consulted by the Law Commission in the preparation of their proposals.

“Where is your home?” seems like a simple question. But in our multi-cultural society, that is not always so. For intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement, it is one of the most important questions to ask.

The HFEA (Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority) govern and regulate all fertility treatments that take place in licensed fertility centres throughout the UK. The code of practice has recently been updated and we are awaiting the official issue of the 9th edition so that we can implement this into our clinical practice.

There’s been much discussion in recent days about the story in the Daily Mail about a same sex male couple in the UK who have received public funding for IVF treatment to try to create embryos using their own gametes and donor eggs.

The HFEA, the UK fertility regulator, has called for a change in how patients are offered optional fertility treatment add-ons.

Surrogacy UK welcomes individuals who want to start families as UK Parliament votes to end three decades of discrimination.

Around the year 2000, a group of researchers, headed by Professor Susan Golombok, began a study of families created using surrogacy. I have worked on the project from its beginnings, when children in the study were one year old infants. Since then, our team has revisited the families five times and last saw them when the children were aged 14.

If you’re reading this then you will have most likely either made the choice that surrogacy is the path to parenthood that you wish to take, or you are close to taking that first big step.