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.

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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