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Latest Surrogacy News
Internet baby couple
criticised
The couple
had gone as far as buying baby clothes
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A childless couple duped by a woman who promised to
"sell" them her baby over the internet have come under
fire from an adoption expert.
April 2, 2004
Sharon and Peter
Robinson-Hudson, from Wrexham, handed over £1,000 to
Moira Greenslade but, six months before the baby was
due, the mother cancelled the agreement.
The couple later said
they felt like they had suffered a "bereavement".
Greenslade admitted
three charges of obtaining a total of £2,500 by
deception and three charges of breaking adoption laws.
She has yet to be sentenced.
The devastated couple -
who had gone as far as buying baby clothes for the child
they longed for - claimed they were "the victims of a
cruel deception."
But speaking to BBC
Wales on Friday, Felicity Collier, chief executive of
the British Association for Adoption and Fostering, said
it should be remembered that the couple had made an
illegal transaction.
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What this woman did to all of us is
terrible
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"It is very, very sad,
and nobody could fail to be moved by the agony of this
would-be mother and her childlessness, and her wishes
for this baby," she said.
She added : "Private
adoptions are actually illegal for good reason - because
we can't have the sort of 'free market' that seems to
have occurred in this case."
For the Robinson-Hudsons,
the pain continues, however.
"We are totally
devastated by the torment we have been put through. We
feel like we have suffered a bereavement," said Mrs
Robinson-Hudson, 33.
Mr Robinson-Hudson, a
44-year old trainee bus driver, said they had already
handed over money when Greenslade cancelled.
"What this woman did to
all of us is terrible," he said.
Surrogate
"By the time we were
told the baby would not be ours we had handed over a
substantial amount of cash."
Greenslade eventually
gave birth to a baby girl in Southampton. The baby
remains in the care of social services.
Another couple, Andy
and Janet Rashley, from Southampton, who had also been
promised the child for £8,000 were present at the birth.
Bingley Magistrates'
Court heard that Greenslade had advertised her services
as a surrogate mother on an internet site in 2003.
Scottish couple Mark
and Michelle Johnson contacted her and entered into an
agreement to adopt the unborn child.
She was paid a total of
£1,500 by the pair, but cancelled the agreement a week
before the baby was due.
The court was told
Greenslade had re-advertised her services and obtained a
further £1,000 from Peter and Sharon Robinson-Hudson.
They contacted police
after receiving an email saying she wanted to cancel the
agreement.
Greenslade's home was
searched and she was arrested at Princess Anne Hospital,
Southampton, on 11 December.
It emerged at the
hospital that a third couple had signed a surrogacy
agreement with her worth £8,000.
Greenslade, from
Keighley, who was bailed by magistrates to appear at
Bradford Crown Court for sentencing, faces a maximum
prison term of 10 years.
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