Adoption/Surrogacy

If you are intending to adopt a child or make arrangements to have a baby through a surrogate mother, we can help you prepare the applications, support you in court and act as your advocate with the judge.

Adoption

The process of adoption transfers the legal parentage of a child permanently from its birth parents, (usually), to the new, adoptive parents. The adoptive parents then have full parental responsibility for the child - the birth parents give up parental responsibility completely.

Step parents

In situations where a step parent wishes to adopt his or her spouse's children, there are two possibilities:

• you can make a single application, which gives the step parent parental rights over the child, but extinguishes the parental rights of the other parent
• you can make a joint application. However, the birth parent then becomes an adoptive parent, rather than a biological one

We can advise you on the implications of each option, to help you make the best choice for your circumstances.

Surrogacy

A Surrogacy Agreement can be drawn up when a woman agrees to bear a child via artificial fertilisation for someone else (known as "the Commissioning Parents").

The commissioning parents can apply to Court for a Parental Order, to become the child's sole legal parents. (NB an application cannot be made if the child is conceived as a result of normal intercourse between the surrogate mother and biological father.)