# Surrogacy, parent orders and domicile....



## clairekentuk (Mar 21, 2007)

Hi, Im hoping to be a surrogate for my dear friends of 15 years. I need to know a few things before I offer....I am married as are the ips. They used to live locally and we have kept in touch over the years although they now live the opposite end of the country. How does it work if they take the baby home after the birth? how do they go about getting medical assistance given that the father cannot be named on the birth certificate? Advice appreciated. Also they are not well off and I will not be wanting expenses as I recycle and reuse maternity wear where I can and they would come and stay to help out for a couple of weeks before baby born and until im ok after the birth. Im told the courts would be suspicious of this, is this the case?


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## NatGamble (Mar 1, 2007)

Hi Clairekentuk

What a brilliant generous thing to offer to do for your friends.  In terms of the practicalities during the 'limbo period', there is always a bit of a legal gap here, since your friends won't be the parents and won't have decision-making power in a strict legal sense.  However, in practice, IPs do take the baby home straight away (and indeed this is expected as a prerequisite of being able to apply for a parental order) and most GPs and medical professionals are pretty pragmatic.  In practice, and most IPs successfully muddle through while they are waiting for their parental order.  If an actual and urgent problem arises, you can apply to the family court for a residence order (which you can get much more quickly than a parental order, and which gives the IPs parental responsibility) but it is pretty rare in practice for this to be necessary - nice to know the option is there though!  

In terms of expenses, it is not uncommon for arrangements to involve very low or no payments where they are between friends/family members, and there is no reason why the court should view this suspiciously.  Do give some thought about this before you commit though, as there may well be quite a lot of expenses incurred, and if you are going to be ought of pocket you need to think this through carefully.

I hope that helps, and best of luck.

Natalie


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