A High Court judge called yesterday for a review of Britain’s surrogacy laws after making a ruling that rescued baby twins from a legal limbo, which had left them “marooned, stateless and parentless” in Ukraine.

The children faced being brought up in a state orphanage because conflicting laws prevented their Ukrainian surrogate mother and the British couple who paid her £23,000 from being recognised as their legal parents.

After making a parental order in favour of the couple, which gives the children British citizenship, Mr Justice Hedley urged ministers to reexamine surrogacy laws to prevent a repeat of the case, “a cautionary tale” for anyone contemplating a foreign surrogacy arrangement.

While surrogacy is permitted in Britain, arrangements are legally unenforceable and surrogate mothers cannot be paid more than their expenses. That has led increasing numbers of childless couples to look abroad, particularly to Ukraine, India and some US states, where they have stronger rights and more surrogates are available because payment is allowed.

The legal problems arose because in Britain the legal parents are the surrogate mother and her husband, but in Ukraine they are the commissioning couple. The twins thus had no right to enter the UK, even though they were conceived with the British man’s sperm. Their surrogate mother and her husband had no obligations towards them under Ukrainian law.

The Home Office agreed to give the twins special discretionary clearance to enter Britain, where their status could be decided by the High Court. Had it not done so, they would have been moved to an orphanage.

The judge described the new parents, who cannot be identified, as “an established and successful professional couple”. The case, he said, had highlighted weaknesses in the current law, which the Government had said it was willing to address during debate on the recent Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.

The court also authorised the payment made to the surrogate mother.

Natalie Gamble, of Lester Aldridge, the couple’s solicitor, said that many of the problems could have been avoided if the British man had been regarded as the twins’ father. “The case has also highlighted the absurdity of British surrogacy law, in particular the fact that the biological father is not recognised as the father if the surrogate mother is married,” she said. “With more and more people going abroad for fertility treatment, these issues desperately need to be addressed.”

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