Kim Cotton became the UK's first surrogate 40 years ago and fled a hospital amid intense media attention during her first surrogacy. Cotton later carried twins in 1991 and founded the surrogacy agency Cots, facilitating over 1,000 pregnancies across decades. Demand for surrogacy in the UK has risen to about 400 children a year, up from roughly 50 before 2008, and more than half result from international arrangements. Stringent UK laws and a chronic shortage of potential surrogates have lengthened agency waiting lists and increased stress on coordinators. Rising infertility, cancer-related treatments and expanded parental orders for same-sex parents have further strained supply.
Much has changed since Kim Cotton became the UK's first surrogate 40 years ago, when she was forced to flee hospital on the floor of a car under a blanket, such was the level of media frenzy around her story. She describes it as a harrowing experience and wishes much of that surrogacy journey had been done differently. It wasn't the right way to do surrogacy, but it was the only thing that was offered, she says.
There are now about 400 children a year born through surrogacy to UK parents, up from about 50 a year before 2008, and more than half are now born through international surrogacy arrangements. Pro-surrogacy campaigners have blamed the stringent laws in the UK for pushing more people to seek surrogacy arrangements abroad, sometimes in countries with lax or nonexistent regulations. Waiting lists at many British surrogacy agencies are now years long.
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