Have a child through a surrogate
A surrogate is someone who will have a baby for you. If you use a surrogate, you’ll be known as the child’s ‘intended parents’.
Legal advice for intended parents
You should get independent legal advice if you’re planning to have a child through a surrogate. A solicitor can help you through each stage of the process.
Find a solicitor on the Law Society of Scotland.
The surrogacy process
There are several steps you’ll need to go through to try to have a child through surrogacy. You will:
- match with a surrogate – a surrogacy organisation can help you with this
- apply through the court for a parental order once the baby is born to become their legal parent
You can also:
- join a surrogacy organisation – they’ll have criteria for who can be intended parents
- attend counselling sessions
- make a surrogacy agreement
You may be able to get NHS IVF (in vitro fertilisation) with surrogacy if you meet their access criteria.
Find the NHS IVF fertility criteria on Fertility Scotland.
Match with a surrogate
It's against the law to advertise that you are looking for someone willing to be a surrogate.
You can join a surrogacy organisation to help you find a surrogate and get support throughout the process.
The organisation you choose will tell you about their criteria for intended parents that you’ll need to meet.
They'll help match you with the right surrogate for you based on your needs and expectations for surrogacy. It can take a long time to find the right surrogate for you – you may need to wait several years to find the right match.
Attend counselling
You can attend regular counselling sessions throughout the surrogacy process.
The British Infertility Counselling Association (BICA) provides counselling if you’re having a child through a surrogate.
You do not need to pay for this if your IVF with surrogacy treatment is provided by the NHS.
Find a counsellor with the BICA.
Make a surrogacy agreement
You can make a surrogacy agreement with the surrogate. It can help you and the surrogate agree on how you want the surrogacy to work. It can include things like:
- pregnancy arrangements – for example, how much involvement you’ll have with attending appointments
- birth arrangements
- how you’ll handle things that might go wrong – for example, pregnancy loss or decisions to terminate the pregnancy
- whether you’ll have a relationship with the surrogate after the child is born
- how much information you’ll give your child about how they were born
Your solicitor and your surrogacy organisation can help you create the surrogacy agreement.
A surrogacy agreement is not a legally binding document.
Get a parental order
When the child is born, the surrogate will be the child’s legal parent. If they’re married or in a civil partnership, their spouse or civil partner will be the child’s other legal parent.
You’ll need to ask a court to make a parental order so you can become the child’s legal parent. You need to apply for the parental order within 6 months of the child being born.
The legal parents will need to agree to the order too. They can only do this 6 weeks after the birth.
Your solicitor can help you apply for a parental order.
Costs for having a child through a surrogate
You’ll need to pay your surrogacy organisation, if you have one, to apply and keep your membership with them. They’ll tell you how much you need to pay to apply and any ongoing costs. You’ll also need to pay for legal advice and legal costs for getting a parental order.
You may also agree to give your surrogate money for any reasonable expenses they have to pay for being a surrogate. This includes things like:
- travel costs
- treatment costs
- maternity clothes
- childcare costs if they have children
- loss of earnings
It’s illegal to pay a surrogate for anything other than reasonable expenses.
Taking time off work
You may be eligible for adoption or paternity pay and leave when you have a child through surrogacy.