Surrogate Mothers Online Q & A: What is involved in finalizing parental rights in the case of gestational surrogacy. Do you need an attorney to get the order of parentage or is that something that we can do on our own? - <a href="mailto:janderso@san.rr.com">Julie</a> in CA

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Surrogate Mothers Online Q & A

Q & A: Legal/Contract Issues - Surrogacy

Topics may include contracts, legal fees, establishing parental rights, etc.

5. What is involved in finalizing parental rights in the case of gestational surrogacy. Do you need an attorney to get the order of parentage or is that something that we can do on our own? - Julie in CA - Top

Julie,

It is always a good idea to have a lawyer do the parentage action for you. In CA, you should have no problems at all with the parentage action since
there is very favorable case law there. Other states, even though the surrogacy is gestational, still consider the woman giving birth to be the
mother and a step-parent adoption is necessary. Our order was done in Colorado where there isn't much background. Our lawyer took supporting
documents from our REs office ("chain of custody" documentation for the embryos, affadavits that the eggs/sperm were ours, etc.) along with our
contract and entered the petition for determination of parentage. The petition was filed and we had our order of parentage within 2 days.

It is also a good idea to take the order with you to the hospital prior to the birth and make sure all the wrinkles are ironed out BEFORE the birth.
Ours was the first surrogacy our hospital had dealt with and people there weren't sure how to handle it. The hospital has no choice but to follow the court order, but they may need some clarification and guidance on how to
proceed. They were going to treat it the same way they do with adoption (baby tagged to GS only, and released from the hospital to GS who could turn it over to us in the parking lot! -- not acceptable to us). We did have to get our lawyer involved (who has twins via surrogacy herself) to clear up these issues. In the end, the twins were tagged to DH and I only, we were
able to get a room on the maternity floor and spent the night at the hospital with them, and they were released to us the next day.

Linda P. - Updated: February 13, 2000
Topics may include contracts, legal fees, establishing parental rights, etc.

5. What is involved in finalizing parental rights in the case of gestational surrogacy. Do you need an attorney to get the order of parentage or is that something that we can do on our own? - Julie in CA - Top: Julie,

It is always a good idea to have a lawyer do the parentage action for you. In CA, you should have no problems at all with the parentage action since
there is very favorable case law there. Other states, even though the surrogacy is gestational, still consider the woman giving birth to be the
mother and a step-parent adoption is necessary. Our order was done in Colorado where there isn't much background. Our lawyer took supporting
documents from our REs office ("chain of custody" documentation for the embryos, affadavits that the eggs/sperm were ours, etc.) along with our
contract and entered the petition for determination of parentage. The petition was filed and we had our order of parentage within 2 days.

It is also a good idea to take the order with you to the hospital prior to the birth and make sure all the wrinkles are ironed out BEFORE the birth.
Ours was the first surrogacy our hospital had dealt with and people there weren't sure how to handle it. The hospital has no choice but to follow the court order, but they may need some clarification and guidance on how to
proceed. They were going to treat it the same way they do with adoption (baby tagged to GS only, and released from the hospital to GS who could turn it over to us in the parking lot! -- not acceptable to us). We did have to get our lawyer involved (who has twins via surrogacy herself) to clear up these issues. In the end, the twins were tagged to DH and I only, we were
able to get a room on the maternity floor and spent the night at the hospital with them, and they were released to us the next day.

Linda P. - Updated: February 13, 2000

Unless stated otherwise, all responses in the SMO Q&A are courtesy of one or more of the following hosts:

Sherry - Experienced gestational surrogate currently working on her 2nd surrogacy arrangement

Linda - New Mommy to twins born via gestational surrogacy and egg donation

Jennifer S. - Experienced AI surrogate

Lynn - New Mommy to a daughter born via traditional surrogacy

Tracie - 5 time egg donor (triplets, 2 sets of twins and 2 singletons) and 3 time surrogate (2-AI, 1-IVF).

Lisa - Experienced egg donor and previous gestational surrogate currently working on her 2nd surrogacy arrangement (Lisa was our former ED host, prior to July 1999.)
Disclaimer: Responses from SMO Q&A Hosts do not necessarily represent the opinions and ideas of SMO. Neither the Q&A hosts nor SMO guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information contained in the responses given here. As such, neither SMO nor the Q&A hosts are responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information. Neither SMO nor the Q&A hosts shall be liable or responsible to any person or entity for any loss or damage caused, or alleged to have been caused, directly or indirectly by the information or ideas contained, suggested, or referenced in these responses.

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