The review will focus on payments for surrogacy

Jowell: 'no' to commercial surrogacy

Surrogacy Law Under Review

A team of three professors will carry out the inquiry and consider whether there needs to be a tightening of the law governing surrogacy agencies.

The existing legislation forbids direct payments to surrogate mothers -- though couples can get around the regulations by handing over inflated sums in expenses.

The Government, in the shape of the Minister for Public Health, Tessa Jowell, told the BBC, "we don't want commercial surrogacy". Earlier she announced in the House of Commons that, "In view of current concern, UK health ministers have invited a small team with the relevant expertise to take stock and reassess the adequacy of existing law in this difficult area".

The review will include the commercial aspects of surrogacy and whether existing legislation needs to be tightened to include the monitoring and regulation of surrogacy agencies.

The controversial case the launched the review

The decision to take a new look at the laws governing surrogacy comes after a British woman backed out of a surrogacy agreement she had entered into with a Dutch couple.

Ms Jowell's insists that, " in an area as sensitive as surrogacy the law is kept under review in order to ensure that it continues to meet public concerns.

"The legal position regarding surrogacy is clear: surrogacy must not be commercialised and surrogacy arrangements are unenforceable.

"However, since this issue was last examined, the number of difficult case which have attracted public attention has increased, although because so many arrangements are entirely private it is always difficult to make any assessment of the numbers of cases," she said.

The review will consider:

• Whether payments, including expenses, to surrogate mothers should continue to be allowed, and if so on what basis
• If there is a case for the regulation of surrogacy arrangements through a recognised body or bodies; and if so to advise on the scope and operation of such arrangements
• And if changes are needed to the Surrogacy Arrangements Act of 1985

Cotton: wants to see surrogate mothers "legitimized"

Cotton: wants to see surrogacy professionalised

"My aim is to ensure that the Government provides a sensible and sensitive way forward, within a framework that inspires public confidence, in an area of personal life where feelings are inevitably raw and highly charged for those involved," said the minister.

Response to the review so far is positive. The British Medical Association have welcomed the investigation and have called for the creation of an independent body to monitor the practice.

Kim Cotton, Britain's first surrogate mother, has too welcomed the move which she called, "long overdue". But she wants to see the payment of surrogate mother's "legitimized" and binding contracts between surrogate mothers and childless couples enforced. These are two moves the Government seems highly unlikely to endorse.