A UK couple's dreams of parenthood have been shattered by a shocking discovery: twins born through surrogacy in Sri Lanka are not biologically related to them. The revelation emerged during DNA tests required for the children's British citizenship application, which revealed that the intended father's sperm had not been used in the fertilisation process.
The couple, referred to as PP and QQ in court documents, had turned to surrogacy after years of unsuccessful attempts to conceive, including IVF treatments. They had previously endured the heartbreak of losing twins born via IVF in India. For their Sri Lankan surrogacy, a family friend acted as the surrogate, and the couple explicitly requested that the embryos be created using donor eggs and PP's sperm. Wish Fertility, the agency involved, confirmed this in writing.
However, DNA tests conducted for the Home Office revealed that PP was not the biological father of the twins. This finding, described by the children's mother as a "devastating" blow, prompted an investigation into the circumstances of the embryos' creation. The Home Office was informed, and British citizenship was subsequently granted to the seven-month-old twins in March.
Wish Fertility initially claimed that the couple had signed a consent form permitting the use of donor sperm alongside PP's, and that embryologists had used both samples, making it impossible to determine which sperm fertilised the implanted embryos. However, this assertion was strongly refuted by Mr Justice Peel in a recent judgment. He stated there was no evidence of such a consent form and that no issues with PP's sperm quality had been raised, thus negating any need for a donor.
Furthermore, Mr Justice Peel found the clinic's claim that it was impossible to differentiate between sperm samples during embryo creation to be "startling" and "improbable." Given that two embryos were transferred, resulting in non-identical twins both unrelated to PP, it appeared highly likely that PP's sperm was not used at all. The judge concluded that the couple were "blameless" and were "desperate to bring up the children, whom they adore," granting an adoption order after they were forced to withdraw their application for a parental order.