Ms Natalie Gamble:

Children having the right status from the point of birth is important. I will tell the committee a story from 2008 of the first international surrogacy case that we dealt with and that highlighted these issues. A British couple had gone to Ukraine and conceived twins. Under UK law, since their surrogate was married, the surrogate and her husband were the parents and the British parents were not, which meant the children were not born British. Under Ukrainian law, though, the surrogate and her husband were not the parents and, instead, the British parents were. Each system of law said that its people were not the parents. As a result, the children were born into a black hole where they had no nationality anywhere in the world and no legal parents responsible for them. The judge described them as having been marooned stateless and parentless. The situation was resolved by the court making a parental order to make the intended parents the legal parents, but it illustrates how stark these issues are for children. If they do not have recognition from birth in the right family, it can have significant consequences.