Surrogacy law reform champion Dr Kirsty Horsey has secured a Kent Faculty Research Fund grant of £3,375 to critically test a ‘myth’ that traditional surrogacy (where the surrogate uses her own egg) is materially different to host surrogacy (where the surrogate is implanted with genetic material unrelated to her).
Dr Horsey will undertake empirical research to determine what difference may or may not exist between the way traditional and host surrogates view both their surrogacy journey and their genetic connection to the child.
The research project, ‘Surrogates Views on traditional surrogacy: is it different?’, is timely given that both the Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission are conducting a UK-wide review of laws on surrogacy. The Law Commissions are aware that some jurisdictions regulate traditional and host surrogacy differently and recognise that there is a gap in research in this area. Dr Horsey’s findings will help fill this gap, informing legal reform as well as public and political debate on surrogacy.
Dr Horsey has long maintained that surrogacy law reform is needed: ‘The main piece of legislation regulating the practice was passed in 1985, additional regulation was added in 1990 and some amendments were made in 2008. The law is based on some assumptions that have turned out to be unfounded. And it has, in part, been responsible for the generation and perpetuation of surrogacy myths.’
Many of these myths were dispelled in a report published by Dr Horsey back in November 2015. Her report, ‘Surrogacy in the UK: Myth busting and reform’, provided an unprecedented insight into how surrogacy is practised in the UK. It was produced as part of Surrogacy UK’s Working Group on Surrogacy Law Reform. Dr Horsey subsequently organised a London conference looking at surrogacy law reform in May 2016, the proceedings of which were published in a special edition of the Journal of Medical Ethics and Law.
For her latest project, Dr Horsey will interview surrogates across the UK. She will share initial findings at a workshop in London, produce plain language fact-sheets for surrogates (and those they work with) and articles for academic journals.
Dr Horsey is a Reader in Law at Kent Law School. Her research interests lie primarily in the area of the regulation of human reproduction and genetic technologies, particularly where these overlap with issues in family law. She is also part of the secretariat for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Surrogacy.