UPDATE: This shocking story of child trafficking between the USA and UK has been shared by Centre of Bioethics. This complex case involved deception of the surrogate mother, employees of the genetic father and a nanny who brought the child to England.
The adoption was eventually agreed so we believe the child is with the genetic father, despite his reference to the child as the “project”.
Another shocking case in the USA involves siblings lying to fertility doctors about their relationship.
The UK’s First Surrogate Mother
In 1984, a woman called Kim Cotton sold a baby to a couple she had never met. Often referred to in the national press at the time as exchanging a baby for ‘carpets and curtains’, Cotton was paid approx. £20,000 in today’s money. The following year a new law was put in place to prevent a baby from being sold again.
Kim Cotton went on to found COTS and has since spoken on many a TV and radio interview that surrogacy is based on friendship and trust, but she remains unaware of what happened to the little girl she gave away, she doesn’t even know her name.
The First Single Commissioning Father
The UK’s first single father might be considered to be David Watkins, but actually the first single father to obtain children through surrogacy was actually Ian Mucklejohn.
Mucklejohn was 54 when he had an agency in California arranged the surrogacy pregnancy with an egg donor (a 27 yr old civil engineering student) and surrogate mother (aged 30). Nannies were employed to care for the boys when they were young, they are now adults. Their mother suddenly died from a stroke aged 45. Her name was Tina Price.
The Youngest Surrogate Mother
The youngest surrogate mother was 17 at the time of giving birth. Abused and coerced into having a baby for her mother, who adopted her, her case was reported on back in 2013.
Another young surrogate mother is Shaniece Sturdy. As a single mother of one, she was 19 when she decided to participate in surrogacy. Aged 21 she gave birth to triplets (from one embryo) for a couple she met through an agency, via C section as the triplets were born prematurely. According to a recent TV appearance, Shaniece said she never held them and is no longer in touch with the family, she also spoke about post natal depression and how she should have not been on a post-natal ward after giving birth.
The Oldest Surrogate Mother
Harriet Stole was 66 years old when she gave birth to her own grandson in April 1999. Harriet was post menopause when had an embryo made from her daughter in law’s egg ad son’s sperm, implanted in her uterus.
And mothers having children for their children has become more common. A landmark case in the UK in 2015 led to the removal of the requirement for two people to apply for a parental order, as a mother had a baby for her son, a single applicant, making her the mother and grandmother and her son both the genetic father and brother of the baby boy.
The oldest surrogate mother in the world is believed to be a grandmother from Greece who gave birth to her grandaughter via C section, weighing 2.6lbs.
The First Same Sex Male Couple
Tony and Barrie Drewitt-Barlow were UK based when an American woman, Rosalind Bellamy gave birth to twins for them. They are now separated, having had more children born via a different surrogate mothers, but they live together with Barrie’s fiancé (his eldest daughter’s ex-boyfriend) with whom he has a second daughter and plans for more children via surrogacy.
Mother of the most Surrogate Babies
Carole Horlock is the most ‘prolific’ surrogate mother in the UK and has had to date, it is claimed, 13 children for others. It was reported in 2025 that she still hopes to have her more and before she turned 58 and despite the risks and her Doctors advice, she sought embryos implantation in Greece. With two daughters and a son (from a surrogate pregnancy, Carole and her partner decided to give him to the people she had the pregnancy for) Carole has had miscarriages at different stages of pregnancy, as well as multiple pregnancies (twins and triplets). Her youngest daughter has spoken about following in her footsteps and also being a surrogate mother but also calls her mother’s surrogate pregnancies as a “borderline addiction”.
Jill Hawkins is another example of ‘serial surrogacy’ having ten children for others, but no ‘keepers’ (not our term).
“And even though the legal secretary from Brighton, England, had complications with her last pregnancy and has been treated for depression and once threatened suicide, she wants to give birth twice more before she turns 50.”
There are not multiple examples of serial surrogacy in the UK, such as Ria Pawlow, Laura McCarthy and Tara Sawyer to name three. Some surrogate mothers speak on the addictive nature of surrogacy.
Surrogacy for a Gap Year
A young British surrogate mother called Kim had a son for a couple so to receive paid maternity leave and be able to take a year off to travel. She follows in the footsteps of her mother who had six surrogacy pregnancies when Kim was aged 5-11. Both women used their own eggs for their pregnancies. In 2024 Kim had a second child for others and in the announcement explained how she had lost touch with the first couple over difference of opinion on how public Kim is. (Kim also spoke about how the Getting To Know period wasn’t required for the second pregnancy as agency COTS failed to implement their own policy to meet Kim’s preferences).
Kim vlogs about her experiences here and has since lost touch with her first born son and last year had another child for a different couple.
Surrogacy and ‘expenses’
A 2019 study from the University of Kent revealed that of 177 sets of parents who took part in the survey, 30 % paid between £20,000 to £30,000 whilst 25 % paid between £10,000 and £15,000, and 21% paid £15,000 to £20,000.
Meanwhile 7% paid up to £40,000, and in five cases couples paid up to £60,000.
Oldest Commissioning Parents
A couple in their 60s had a one year old child removed from their care by social services. The couple used the services of an overseas fertility clinic, bypassing UK restrictions, to conceive the child. The Surrogate Mother and her husband signed a parental order and legal rights were granted to the couple.
In 2023 a 72 year old man in Edinburgh was granted a parental order for a 3 year old who was born to a surrogate mother in Oklahoma. By the time the application was made the man’s wife had already passed away in a nursing home. The boy appears to have been cared by nannies since birth and plans were being made for boarding school and for a legal guardianship.
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Aside from mainstream news, another example of extreme circumstances in surrogacy is shown here. The Commissioning father dies suddenly, prior to the birth of the surrogate-born child. As the father was the only genetic parent applying for legal parental rights the Commissioning Mother had to apply to the courts for a parental order to be granted, outside of the current laws.
Outside of the UK, there have been some recent extreme surrogacy stories in other parts of the world, such as this couple in Georgia who have 21 children born through surrogacy, and the Japanese Businessman who had 16 children via surrogate mothers, however we would like to end this by remembering the lives of the women who have died. I dedicate this blog to them, including the women we don’t hear about.
Jenny Craft – October 2021
Lydia Cox – July 2021
Surrogate mother – name unknown – died May 2021
Michelle Reeves – died January 2020
Crystal Wihite – died Feb 2017
Brooke Brown – died October 2015
and from the UK, Natasha Caltabiano who died on New Years Eve 2005.
2025 Update: In addition to a 22 year old surrogate mother who died in Ukraine we are also aware of another young surrogate mother who died after giving birth and that attempts have been made to cover up the circumstances of her death.
Perhaps, in time, the reporting of Maternal Death in the UK will record data on surrogacy so we can understand what links IVF drugs and surrogacy pregnancies have to the deaths of these women.
There’s definately a lot to know about this
topic. I really like all of the points you made.
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