ST (A Child) (Surrogacy: Iran) (Rev 1)

The commissioning applicants apply for a parental order in respect of ST, who was born in Spring 2017 in Iran. This is the final hearing in relation to their application pursuant to s.54.

The first applicant, the commissioning father, although born in Canada, moved to the United

The gestational mother of ST is Iranian and lives in Iran. ST was conceived through a fertility clinic in Tehran by way of embryo transplant using donated sperm from the commissioning father and an anonymous Iranian egg donor. Nothing is known about the egg donor.

The gestational mother is a single woman. She, and the commissioning parents are named

The applicants met in 2005, and married in 2008. They had a strong wish to start a family, which, following unsuccessful IVF treatment, did not occur. They began the adoption process in the United Kingdom, and were approved as adopters, but they also investigated adopting a child from Iran. For cultural reasons they discovered that was not a possibility.

Subsequently they investigated surrogacy in 2015. Iran is one of the very few, if not the only, I think, Islamic country that permits and promotes surrogacy. It is legal to administer fertility treatment, and for a single or married woman to act as a surrogate. Written surrogacy agreements are legal, and enforceable in Iran.

Through their enquiries they were introduced to a Fertility Clinic, who in turn introduced them to the potential surrogate. All parties had legal advice and the applicants entered into a “private contract instrument” with the surrogate. That document is, in Iran, an official deed and was notarised at the time of signing. It constitutes a binding surrogacy agreement between the parties providing for the surrogate to carry the child conceived by way of embryo transplant. In turn, the applicants agreed to pay various sums of money to meet her reasonable expenses and medical costs.

A successful transfer occurred in Summer 2016, and ST was the happy result, born in Spring 2017. ST moved into the care of the applicants following birth, and has remained with them ever since.

Following the birth, a “certificate of birth” was issued. That is not to be confused with a

That birth certificate was issued shortly after the birth, naming the applicants. Subsequent relevant consents were sought from the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs enabling the commissioning parents to leave Iran with ST. Leave for ST to enter the UK was subsequently granted, and they flew home in the summer of 2017.

The surrogate mother has been involved in this application. She was a party to the notarised agreements. She has given the necessary notarised consent and indeed has also spoken most recently to the Reporting Officer.

In 2002, the Iranian Parliament passed a law that permitted surrogacy for infertile married couples, that was subsequently approved by Guardian Council and has been fully operative for some 13 years.

Iran is one of the few Islamic countries that permits surrogacy, it takes a relatively enlightened attitude towards the donation, for example, of third party eggs. Most Sunni scholars, as opposed to Shiite, being the majority in Iran, take a different view about surrogacy, introducing, as it were, the sperm of a man into the uterus of a woman to whom he is not married. Those difficulties do not arise in this case. Sperm donation in fertility treatment is not permitted.

There are debates in the literature which I have seen about the remuneration in Iran to the surrogate. There is no set limit on the money paid to the surrogate, but there is a strong school of thought, as with the law here, that expenses should be limited to the reimbursement of expenses actually incurred.

There is no ban on providing infertility services, including surrogacy, which can include foreign commissioning couples. The intended mother is recognised as the child’s legal mother and the birth certificate is issued under the names of the intended mother and her husband. The egg donation must not incur a cost. The intended parents must be the same religion as the egg donor. I am told that currently about 2,000 children a year are born via surrogacy in Tehran alone, and that there are over 70 registered fertility clinics.

The Clinic engaged by the applicants in this case - is one of two especially prominent fertility centres in Iran. I note that their services involve the medical and psychological screening of surrogates and intended parents, and the clinic helps the parties agree to and prepare a free surrogacy contract, similar to the one which appears in this case.

Subsection (6) does not require the agreement of a person who cannot be found or is incapable of giving agreement; and the agreement of the woman who carried the child is ineffective for the purpose of that subsection if given by her less than six weeks after the child's birth.

The court must be satisfied that no money or other benefit (other than for expenses reasonably incurred) has been given or received by either of the applicants for or in consideration of—

For the purposes of an application under this section—

‘the court’ means the High Court or the family court, and

proceedings on the application are to be ‘family proceedings’ for the purposes of the Children Act 1989,]