Hong Kong court grants couple parenting rights in mainland Chinese surrogacy case
Couple turned to court after failing to secure identification cards, but ruling not expected to set precedent, lawyer says
A Hong Kong court has granted a local married couple a parental order for two boys born following a verbal surrogacy agreement in mainland China, ruling that the applicants were merely ignorant that the arrangement was illegal.
But a lawyer said the ruling was unlikely to set a precedent as the circumstances of surrogacy cases varied.
Commercial surrogacy arrangements are illegal in both Hong Kong and on the mainland.
The High Court granted parenting rights to the couple last Tuesday.
According to court documents, the husband, aged 61, and wife, aged 59, commissioned two surrogates via an agent in Shenzhen in July 2023 to each carry embryos created using his sperm and donors’ eggs. The boys were born in the mainland city by caesarean sections the following year.
They turned to the court after failing to secure identification documents for the boys to move to Hong Kong from Shenzhen. They were denied the documents because the wife was not the birth mother, although the couple were both Hong Kong permanent residents.
She was also unable to have her status as a mother legally recognised on the mainland after a court in Shenzhen refused to accept her case, as it involved commercial surrogacy.