Britain’s oldest IVF parents have had their child removed by a government agency after they failed to meet minimum care requirements. The unnamed couple, the mother aged 63 and her partner 65, are “devastated”, according to a report in the London daily The Sun.
“Social services have been dealing with them since last year and told them to make improvements in how the child was being looked after,” The Sun was told. “They then decided that the called-for improvements had not happened and took the child into care.”
The couple, who spent £100,000 on a surrogate mum, are said to be ‘devastated’ after social services took their one-year-old baby from them.
The couple’s age is thought to be a factor in fears over the one-year-old’s well-being. A source said: “They are devastated.
The adoptive parents spent more than £100,000 on the procedure and used a clinic abroad as most in the UK would not deal with a couple their age.
The child’s British birth mother and her husband were named on the birth certificate, but they signed a parental order letting the older couple adopt.
Social services closely monitored the situation and, after the concerns were raised, the child was taken away and is thought to be in foster care.
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The source said: “This is a very unusual situation. Although it is upsetting for all, social workers have done what they think is best for the child.”
The adoptive mother refused to comment, as did the couple’s local council.
The couple live in the north of England. Last year they engaged a surrogate mother in her 30s who was impregnated with the male partner’s sperm and a donor egg. The procedure was carried out overseas, as British clinics were reluctant to help a couple at such an advanced age. Legally speaking, the matter was complicated. The surrogate mother and her partner were named on the birth certificate as the parents, but the baby was then adopted by the commissioning couple.
The elderly couple are still fighting to regain custody of the child.
LifeNews Note: Michael Cook is editor of BioEdge where this story appeared.
