There’s been an increase in people aged over 80 using surrogates to become parents later in life—sparking furious backlash from anti-surrogacy campaigners.
Surrogacy is when a woman carries a pregnancy for a couple—or individual— who become the child’s legal parent after the baby’s birth.
Figures released by the Children and Family Court Advisory Service (Cafcass) showed that between 2020 and 2025, a ‘handful’ of applications were made by octogenarians.
When pressed by The Times, who obtained the data after placing a Freedom of Information Request (FOI), Cafcass refused to reveal exactly how many applications were made by people in their eighties.
They said the figures ‘could potentially identify the individuals involved’, but clarified that there were fewer than six applications per year during that period.
This means that there could have been a maximum of thirty applications.
The Cafcass data showed there had been 1,991 applications for parental orders between 2020 and 2024.
The data revealed an overall increase in older people applying for legal parent status of babies born through surrogacy.
Older people are using surrogates to start families, despite their child-bearing days being long behind them (file photo)
There were 416 parental order applications from males and females in their fifties between 2020 and 2025, and 43 from men in their sixties.
There was also an upward trend in applications made by men in their fifties, with 44 in 2020 and 95 in 2025.
Helen Gibson, founder of the campaign group Surrogacy Concern, said: ‘We are appalled to see parental order applications for surrogate-born babies being made by people in their sixties, seventies and eighties — there can be no justification for such a selfish act.
‘It is even more concerning to see that these figures are rising consistently year by year.
‘There is no upper age limit for parental orders or pursuit of surrogacy in the UK or in the majority of countries British people are travelling to in order to have surrogate-born children.
‘It is ludicrous that people can obtain parental orders for surrogate-born children decades after their natural childbearing years have ended.
‘Government must strongly consider whether or not any of this is in the child’s interests.
‘Most surrogacy cases which come before our courts are now dominated by foreign cases, usually babies born to mothers in commercial surrogacy arrangements which would be illegal in the UK, and increasingly to older parents.
Anti-surrogacy campaigners want an age limit placed on people who can use surrogacy (file photo)
‘The Government must act urgently to empower the courts to block these parental order applications and ban the pursuit of surrogacy abroad by Britons.’
In May, a couple in their 70s were granted a court order to become the legal parents of a 14-month-old surrogate baby boy—despite a judge’s concerns they could die before the child reaches 18.
The husband and wife, both aged 72, applied to the courts for a parental order in July after the baby was born six months earlier to a surrogate in California using the husband’s sperm and a donor egg.
In a written judgment handed down in the family division of the High Court, it said the application by the couple – referred to only as ‘Mr and Mrs K’ – was allowed on March 28.
Mrs Justice Knowles said that she had made her judgment public because it raised an ‘important welfare issue and offers some advice for those who may, in future, engage in a foreign or other surrogacy arrangement’.
She added that it was an ‘undeniable fact’ that when the child – referred to as ‘B’ – started primary school, Mr and Mrs K would be both aged 76.
‘Put starkly, Mr and Mrs K will both be 89 years old when B reaches his majority [18 years old],’ she said.
Mr and Mrs K paid just over £151,000 to the surrogate mother and the agency, of which just £24,635 was deemed to be ‘reasonably incurred’ by the court, according to the judgement.
There has also been an increase in people in their 50s using surrogates to welcome a baby (file photo)
There is no legal age limit for so-called ‘intended parents’ in surrogacy arrangements in the UK, but campaigners have condemned the trend of older people having babies through surrogates.
Lexi Ellingsworth, co-founder at Stop Surrogacy Now UK, said this case demonstrates the ‘flaws’ in the current law when it comes to surrogacy arrangements in the UK.
She added: ‘There are no upper age limits for commissioning parents in the UK, or for surrogate mothers, and the “parental order pathway” would continue to allow Britons to go abroad to buy babies.
‘This appalling loophole which enables people to get around our domestic ban on commercial surrogacy practices must be closed by the Government immediately.’
Surrogacy is legal in the UK, but the law prevents commercial arrangements, meaning it is illegal to advertise for a surrogate mother or pay her more than ‘reasonable expenses’.
Under British law, the surrogate mother is treated as the legal mother at birth and any husband or partner she has as the father.
Couples in surrogacy arrangements can apply to a court within six months of the child’s birth for a ‘parental order’ to acquire parenthood.
These extinguish the status of the surrogate mother and grant parental status to the couple. A new birth certificate can then be issued.
However courts in the UK must assess what has been paid to the surrogate mother, as part of the process.
If more than ‘reasonable expenses’ were paid, the court has to authorise the payment — but one has never before refused to authorise a payment because it would ultimately jeopardise the wellbeing of the child.
According to Brilliantbeginnings.co.uk, in the US – where commercialised surrogacy is legal – surrogate mothers can be paid $20,000 to $30,000.
In the UK, which has an ‘altruistic’ system, surrogates are paid around £12,000 to £15,000.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .