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ISSUES
REGARDING ALTERNATIVES SUCH AS SURROGACY
AND GESTATIONAL CARRIER RELATIONSHIPS
In
the last several decades medical treatments in the fields of fertility and
obstetrics have improved to a point that children are being conceived and
brought into families by extraordinary means.
Such procedures as In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), Artificial
Insemination (AI), Intercellular sperm injection (ICSI), and various forms of
surrogacy have increased the range of potentials for family expansion.
But with many of these medical advances have come legal issues
which are not so easily resolved.
The
genetic parents of children, those who contribute their sperm or ova,
can now be verified by DNA and other medical tests.
However, the genetic parents
in this modern age are not always the intended parents.
Although laws vary dramatically from state to state and country to
country, in the traditional sense,
the Legal Parents are the woman to whom the child is born and her
husband or a man who has obtained a court Order for legitimation or other
parentage. Now the fact of
childbirth is no longer the determining factor.
A gestational carrier may give birth to a child who is in no way
genetically related to her. A surrogate may give birth to a child who has been conceived with
the intention that another woman be the legal mother.
In some situations a Court adoption procedure may be required.
In other situations, a pre
or post-birth Court action
for determination of parentage may be required.
In
order to express this situation with a bit more clarity,
the following chart is provided to illustrate some of the possible
combinations. In this example the
“Mother” and “Father” are
the persons who will raise the child.
|
Situation
|
Legal
Mother
|
Genetic
Mother
|
Intended
Mother
|
|
Legal
Father
|
Genetic
Father
|
Intended
Father
|
|
Traditional
mother and father, who
married and then conceived in the bedroom or other appropriate
setting, and then proceed through pregnancy and birth together, or
by artificial insemination with her husband’s sperm, or by in
vitro fertilization and implantation with their own egg and sperm
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Woman
who has a child out of wedlock with a specific partner
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
No,
unless other action is taken
|
Yes
|
?
|
|
Woman
who has child out of wedlock and does not reveal the identity of the
father
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
No
|
Unknown
|
None
|
|
Woman
who receives insemination or in vitro fertilization from donor sperm
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Yes
|
NO,
sperm obtained with waiver of parentage
|
Yes
|
|
In
vitro fertilization of Donor Egg with male parent’s sperm and
implantation of the embryo into the mother
|
Yes
|
NO,
egg obtained with waiver of parentage
|
Yes
|
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
In
vitro fertilization of donor egg with donor sperm and then
implantation into mother
|
Yes,
with certain actions
|
No,
egg obtained with waiver of parentage
|
Yes
|
|
Yes,
with certain actions
|
No,
sperm obtained with waiver of parentage
|
Yes
|
|
In
vitro fertilization of donor egg and/or donor sperm and implantation
into Gestational Carrier
|
Legal
action required
|
NO,
egg obtained with waiver of parentage
|
Yes
|
|
Legal
action required
|
No,
sperm obtained with waiver of parentage
|
Yes
|
|
Variant
of the last but lacking either
legal/intended father or legal/intended mother
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Release
of child for adoption
|
At
birth but released by formal process
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Perhaps
|
Exists
but may not be identified
|
NO
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In
ideal situations, the
conception and birth of any child should be an act of conscious planning.
That, of course, is not always the case. In
situations of reproduction involving the assistance of technology or third
parties, a clear, competently
crafted, advance agreement is
essential.
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