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53 Medico-Legal J. 3 (1985)

handle is hein.journals/medlgjr53 and id is 1 raw text is: THE MEDICO-LEGAL JOURNAL Founded 1901 1985 Vol. 53 Part One EDITORIAL The Future of Surrogacy in Great Britain: Amid frantic press and media coverage, Kim Cotton, England's first commercial surrogate mother (hired at a fee of £6,500 but paid £20,000 by a morning newspaper to tell her story exclusively to them), gave birth to a baby girl. Born on 4 January 1985, Baby Cotton was immediately made the subject of a place of safety order under s 28 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1969 on the application of Barnet's Social Services Department. Subsequently the natural father applied to have her made a ward of court and on 11 January, Latey J, an experienced Family Division judge, gave the natural father and his wife care and control and granted leave to take the baby outside the jurisdiction to their home abroad. On 14 January 1985, reasons for the decision were given in open court. The judge issued strict orders to the press and others, that no efforts should be made to identify the natural father or publish identifying details. The Reason for the Decision: As Latey J stressed, the first and foremost consideration in the court's wardship jurisdiction is to act in the best interests of the child. Although the circumstances of this baby's creation and birth raised complex and delicate problems of ethics, morality and social desirability, those matters were not for the court to consider after the child was born and was the subject of wardship proceedings. In any future situation, the judge said that the best step would be for the child to be made a ward of court immediately, rather than the subject of a place of safety order, since the High Court in its wardship jurisdiction had very wide powers and resources to deal quickly with urgent cases, which the juvenile court did not have. Although there were two public interests in direct contradiction with one another, namely, freedom of information and the well-being of the child, the rule was that where a child was a ward of court, nothing might be published without leave of the court, although if there was some innocuous publication it would be for the court to decide whether this was contempt.

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