Surrogacy and Child welfare

I was curious to read this article https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/social-life-blog/2016/dec/14/what-social-workers-need-to-know-about-surrogacy published this week  about surrogacy in the UK.  I was initially rather confronted by the tone of the article – it came across as rather “anti-surrogacy”. Having had a second read though, I can more clearly see the concern expressed by the author about the genuine risks associated with surrogacy… when it is done poorly… or with a cavalier attitude to potential roadblocks or issues.

I do feel that many of the potential problems outlined in the article can be managed when families commit to full engagement in good quality, thorough counselling with a fertility counsellor who truly understands surrogacy, and the associated risks and benefits.  So many problems in surrogacy seem to emerge where there has been a “tick box attitude” from either the counsellor or the counselling participants.  Unfortunately, the stark reality  remains that while we keep fine tuning our processes and “learning our lessons”, children born in the context of poorly considered third party reproduction arrangements are at risk due to (often well intentioned, but poorly informed) adults making bad choices.