There is an increase in people of more than 80 years with the help of surrogates to become parents later in life-a furious recoil of anti-Surrogacy campaigners.
Surrogate is when a woman wears a pregnancy for a few – or individual – who becomes the legal parent of the child after the birth of the baby.
Figures released by the Children and Family Court Advisory Service (Cafcass) showed that between 2020 and 2025 a ‘handful’ of applications was made by Octogenarians.
When pressed by Timewho obtained the data after placing a Freedom of Information Request (FOI), refused Cafcass to reveal exactly how many applications were made by people in the 1980s.
They said that the figures ‘possibly the persons involved could identify’, but clarified that there were fewer than six applications per year during that period.
This means that there may have been a maximum of thirty applications.
The CAFCASS data showed that there had been 1,991 applications for parental orders between 2020 and 2024.
The data revealed an overall increase in the elderly who apply for legal parent status from babies born by surrogacy.
Older people use surrogates to start families, even though their child -bearing days are behind them (file photo)
There were 416 applications of parental order of men and women in their 1950s between 2020 and 2025, and 43 of men in their sixties.
There was also an upward trend in requests from men in the 1950s, with 44 in 2020 and 95 in 2025.
Helen Gibson, founder of the surrogacy of the campaign group, said: ‘We are shocked to see that applications of parental order for surrogate-born babies are being made by people in the 1960s, 1970s and Eighty-eras, there can be no justification for such a selfish act.
‘It is even more worrying to see that these figures rise consistently year after year.
‘There is no higher age limit for parental orders or pattern in the UK or in the majority of countries travel to the British to travel to have children born in surrogate.
‘It is ridiculous that people can obtain parental orders for surrogate-born children for decades after their natural fertile years.
‘The government must consider greatly considering whether or not this is in the interests of the child.
‘Most surrogacy issues that come for our courts are now dominated by Foreign Affairs, usually babies born of mothers in commercial surrogacy schemes that would be illegal in the UK, and increasingly for older parents.
Anti-Surrogacy campaigners want an age limit placed on people who can use surrogacy (file photo)
“The government is to be in urgent action to enable the courts to block these applications of parental order and forbiding the pursuit of surrogacy abroad by prohibiting British.”
In May, a few in the 1970s were ordered to become the legal parents of a 14-month-old Surrogaat Babyboy-Utd, according to the worries of a judge they could die before the child reaches 18.
The man and wife, both 72 years old, applied for a parental order in July after the baby was born six months earlier from a surrogate in California with the help of the sperm of the husband and a donor -egg.
In a written judgment in the family division of the Supreme Court, it said that the request by the couple – only referred to as ‘Mr and Mrs K’ – allowed on 28 March.
Mrs Justice Knowles said she had made her judgment public because it has called on an “important welfare issue and offers advice for those who can enter into a foreign or other surrogacy in the future.”
She added that it was an ‘unmistakable fact’ that when the child – referred to as ‘B’ – started primary school, the Lord and Mrs. K would both be at the age of 76.
‘Set strong, the Lord and Mrs. K will both be 89 years old when B reaches his majority [18 years old]”She said.
Mr. and Mrs. K paid a little more than £ 151,000 to the Surrogaat Mother and the Agency, of which, according to the judgment, only £ 24,635 was considered ‘reasonably’.
There has also been an increase in people in fifty who use surrogates to welcome a baby (file photo)
There is no legal age limit for so -called ‘intended parents’ in surrogacy schemes in the UK, but campaigners have condemned the trend of the elderly who have babies through surrogates.
Lexi Ellingworth, co-founder of Stop Surrogacy Now UK, said that this case shows the ‘mistakes’ in the current law when it comes to surrogacy schemes in the UK.
She added: ‘There are no higher age limits for the commissioning of parents in the UK, or for surrogate mothers, and the’ parental order path ‘would remain British abroad to buy babies.
“This terrible Maas in the law that enables people to bypass our domestic ban on commercial surrogacy must be closed immediately by the government.”
Surrogate is legal in the UK, but the law prevents commercial regulations, which means that it is illegal to advertise for a Surrogaat Mother or pay more than ‘reasonable costs’.
According to British law, the surrogate mother is treated at birth as the legal mother and every husband or partner she has as a father.
Couples in surrogacy can apply to a ‘parental order’ to acquire parenthood within six months of the birth of the child of a court.
These extinguish the status of the Surrogaat Mother and give the 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 Surrogaat Mother, as part of the process.
If more than ‘reasonable costs’ were to be paid, the court must give the payment permission – but it has never been refused to authorize a payment because it would ultimately endanger the well -being of the child.
According to Brilliantbeginings.co.uk, in the US – where commercialized surrogacy is legal – surrogate mothers $ 20,000 to $ 30,000 can be paid.
In the UK, which has an ‘altruistic’ system, surrogates get around £ 12,000 to £ 15,000.
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