Couple in ‘Rent-a-Womb’ Controversy Receive Baby

A judge today awarded custody of Britain’s first baby conceived for pay to an American couple who paid the surrogate mother $7,200 to bear the child.

The High Court justice, Sir John Brimsmead Latey, said the baby girl, born 10 days ago, has already gone to start a new life in the United States-away from the controversy surrounding what has been dubbed the “rent-a-womb” business.

Sir John, Announcing his judgment in the first case of legal intervention in surrogate motherhood in Britain, said the couple who took the baby are a devoted husband and wife in their 30s who can give her a very good upbringing.

He said the couple were highly qualified and materially well off, with a town house and a country house.

But the judge maintained a ban on identifying the family to protect the girl’s privacy.

He did not address the ethical, moral and social questions surrounding surrogate parenthood, stressing that his only concern was the welfare of the baby.

Britain’s Conservative government has already signaled that it will take action quickly to outlaw commercial surrogacy.

The birth was arranged through an agency, which the British press reported was paid $15,500. The agency in turn paid half to the surrogate mother, Kim Cotton, a 28-year-old London housewife with two children of her own.