Marlene Cayoun and Beth Hibbert acted for the applicant mother in proceedings concerning an unusual application for a parental order in respect of a child born by surrogacy in Georgia in 2017, which arose in the context of ongoing care proceedings.

The court considered that it was in the child’s welfare interests to grant the parental order sought, but in so doing was required to apply section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 to “read down” 4 of the 8 factors at section 54 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008. Theis J noted the swift and effective use of the process available under the 1961 Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents on Apostille, to verify the Georgian surrogate mother’s consent to the making of the parental order.