Elle magazine: What is surrogacy?

This month’s Elle magazine has featured a piece about surrogacy, covering all the basics including costs, medical requirements, the law and what it means to be a surrogate or an intended parent.  Elle interviewed Brilliant Beginnings client manager Stephen Ashe for the piece:

‘It is incredibly rare for a surrogate to change her mind about handing over the child,’ explains Stephen Ashe from Brilliant Beginnings. ‘There have only been a tiny handful of disputed surrogacy cases, compared with thousands of successful surrogacy arrangements.’

Is it illegal to organise a surrogacy outside of a registered surrogacy organisation?

While it isn’t illegal, help from an organisation is advised for the benefit of both intended parents and surrogates. ‘Some people do enter into private arrangements without the involvement of an organisation (often friends and family members) but having the support of an agency is a sensible protection if you are working with someone you don’t know,’ says Ashe from Brilliant Beginnings.

What do surrogacy organisations do in terms of helping surrogates and intended parents work together?

Trust is the key component in a surrogacy partnership. The role of a surrogacy organisation, such as Surrogacy UK or Brilliant Beginnings, is largely to make sure the surrogate and intended parents feel supported and well-informed. ‘Once we feel that we have found a good match, we would send information to each including anonymised profiles and some photos and a letter that the surrogate and also the intended parents have written,’ explains Ashe. ‘When a match is made, the ‘team’ (comprising of a surrogate and intended parents) is encouraged to talk to each other and learn about each other’s lives before they make a decision about what they want to do next. We then swap everyone’s details, and they have a chance to start talking to each other. When they are ready they would then move towards bringing together an agreement between each of them, and we assist with this.’

You can read the full article here.