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The ebook edition of this title is Open Access, thanks to Knowledge Unlatched funding, and freely available to read online.
Surrogacy unsettles established understandings of parenthood, family and reproduction. Many of the debates around surrogacy focus on ideas about what is best for children, yet regulation has largely been shaped without their direct engagement. Children’s Voices in Surrogacy Law: Hearing the Views of Children on Surrogacy Law Reform addresses this gap through the first empirical study of its kind in the UK, presenting the perspectives of 54 children aged 8–18.
Drawing on group interviews and creative methods, the study captures the views of surrogate-born children, children of surrogates, and children without experience of surrogacy. It examines their perspectives on legal parenthood, payments, and access to information about origins, showing how existing legal frameworks are experienced and understood by those they most affect.
Authors Katherine Wade, Kirsty Horsey, and Zaina Mahmoud challenge prevailing assumptions and reveal the limits of adult-centred approaches. Set against ongoing law reform efforts, including the UK Law Commissions’ 2023 proposals, the book argues that meaningful and sustainable surrogacy law reform requires recognising children as active participants in, rather than passive subjects of, legal frameworks.
An essential resource for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners concerned with the future of family law and child-centred regulation, Children’s Voices in Surrogacy Law offers an innovative and replicable methodology for incorporating children’s perspectives into legal consultation.
Katherine Wade is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Bristol Law School. Her research areas are in family law, medical law and children’s rights. Her research examines issues in assisted reproduction from a children’s rights perspective, with a focus on surrogacy and donor conception.
Kirsty Horsey is Professor of Law at Loughborough University. Her research interests lie primarily in the regulation of surrogacy and other forms of assisted human reproduction. She is particularly interested in where these areas overlap and intersect with issues in family law, especially the concept of legal parenthood.
Zaina Mahmoud is a Senior Lecturer in Law in the School of Law and Social Justice at the University of Liverpool. She has a keen interest in (assisted) reproduction and gestation. As a socio-legal scholar, she takes an empirical approach to enhancing the legal analytical component of her research.
Introduction
Chapter 1. Methodology: Hearing Children’s Voices in Research on Law and Law Reform
Chapter 2. Children’s Views on Parenthood in Surrogacy Arrangements
Chapter 3. Children’s Views about Contributions to Surrogates
Chapter 4. Children’s Views about Origin Information in Surrogacy
Chapter 5. Surrogacy in Children’s Social Worlds
Conclusion: Hearing from Children on Surrogacy Law Reform