A Tory MP has called for surrogacy to be outlawed and controversially compared the practice to taking a puppy from its mother.
In a series of outspoken comments, Miriam Cates, MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, branded surrogacy ‘just ethically not acceptable’, declaring: ‘You don’t have a right to become a parent.’
‘You can’t take a puppy off its mother in this country before it’s weaned. You’re not allowed to,’ she added.
The 41-year-old – a devout Christian described as a ‘darling’ of the Tory party – is the co-chairman of the New Conservatives, an influential group of backbenchers.
Miriam Cates, MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, is a a devout Christian described as a ‘darling’ of the Tory party
Ms Cates branded surrogacy as ‘just ethically not acceptable’, declaring: ‘You don’t have a right to become a parent.’ Pictured, Miriam Cates and her husband Dave
Speaking to The House magazine, Mrs Cates also described the Government’s introduction of no-fault divorce in 2022 as ‘the wrong decision’ and warned that IVF fertility treatment ‘cannot solve’ the UK’s falling birth rate.
Surrogacy is when a woman carries and gives birth to a child for someone else.
The intended parents can be heterosexual couples unable to have children, same-sex couples or single parents.
The UK is still one of the few countries where surrogacy is legal.
The number of parents having a baby using a surrogate in England and Wales has almost quadrupled in the past decade.
Parental orders, which transfer legal parentage from the surrogate, rose from 117 in 2011 to 449 in 2022.
Voicing her opposition to the practice, Mrs Cates, a mother of three and former biology teacher, said: ‘You have to look at it from the baby’s point of view.
‘Of course adults have a strong desire to be parents, both men or women. Of course it’s a sadness if that’s unfulfilled for whatever reason – they can’t conceive, don’t have a partner, whatever it is.
‘But to deliberately bring a child into the world in order to separate it from its mother at birth I think is just ethically not acceptable.’
Asked whether surrogacy should be outlawed, she replied ‘Yes, I do’, but added: ‘Given the [low] numbers that are conceived here, I don’t think it will ever be a huge issue for Parliament to tighten the law, but I hope we can resist decriminalising.’
Last night Alan White, chairman of the support group Surrogacy UK, voiced his dismay at her comments.
Mr White and his husband Nic have a 15-month-old son Jago who was born to a surrogate.
Last night Alan White (pictured), chairman of the support group Surrogacy UK, voiced his dismay at her comments
‘We are always sad and disappointed to hear views like this which generally come from people who have not spoken to surrogates, to intended parents, to people born through surrogacy,’ he said. ‘Any comparison between women and children and dogs is unfortunate.
‘Surrogates don’t see themselves as mothers, they see themselves as extreme baby-sitters or looking after someone’s baby and doing that wonderful thing of doing the part of having children women or gay men can’t do for themselves.’
Student Hannah Veness, 21, who was born to a surrogate mother because her parents were unable to have children, said Mrs Cates’s comments were ‘wrong’ and ‘slightly insulting’.
‘She [the surrogate] knew that she was doing something for someone else,’ Ms Veness said. ‘She never thought she was the mother. She is just an amazing person who has given one of her eggs to create a baby for someone else.
‘I still text her on a regular basis. My parents text her. We all have a really good relationship with her.
‘My parents are very grateful – 21 years later – that she has done this for them. It is a really good thing.’
Mrs Cates also warned that the UK’s low birth rate will lead to population collapse but does not believe that IVF is the answer: ‘We have to be real: it’s not very successful, in terms of how likely you are to conceive on each round, sadly, and the older you get the less successful you get.’
‘They’re incredible people who go under the radar’
A student born to one of Britain’s most prolific surrogate mothers last night branded Miriam Cates’s comments ‘insensitive’ and ‘wrong’.
Pictured: Euan Walsh as a baby
Euan Walsh, 22, and his brother Callum, 21, were among ten babies carried by Jill Hawkins during her 20-year ‘career’ as a surrogate.
His father Andrew and mother Gaynor were unable to conceive after Gaynor was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She died in 2007 when Euan was six.
Euan, who is in his final year at Bournemouth University, met Jill, who lives in County Durham, for the first time since his birth last November. He said: ‘To compare surrogates to dogs is insensitive and shows lack of education around surrogacy. They are incredible people who almost go under the radar and should be given more credit than they are actually given.
‘I met my surrogate for the first time in November, which was incredible. I have met a few other surrogates as well – someone who is on their second surrogacy and someone who is on their first – and they are so mentally switched on and aware of the situation and what they are getting themselves into.’
Ms Hawkins retired as a surrogate in 2012 at 47 after suffering serious complications during her last pregnancy.
How law prevents profiteering
Surrogacy laws in the UK are far stricter than elsewhere in the world.
Unlike in the US, where commercial surrogacy is permitted and women can make lucrative sums of up to $90,000 (£70,000) for renting out their wombs to would-be parents, the UK system effectively prohibits profiting from the practice.
It means women can be paid only ‘reasonable expenses’, in line with fertility laws which also permit sperm and egg donors to pocket only expenses. For surrogacy, these can range from around £12,000 to £25,000 depending on the situation, according to family lawyers. While the specifics are agreed between each surrogate and the couple paying her bills, what counts as reasonable must be scrutinised and rubber-stamped by the courts after the baby is born.
It is also illegal for an intermediary to profit from arranging surrogacy in the UK.
Couples using a surrogate must, after the baby is born, obtain a parental order from the Family Court to become the child’s legal parents. Until the order is granted – which can take months – the surrogate remains the child’s legal mother.
This has led to high-profile disputes, including cases where surrogates have kept the child and refused to consent to a parental order waiving their rights from being granted.