If you are planning on using a surrogate in order to have a child, you need to enlist the assistance of a lawyer who practices in the field of family law. Here are a few reasons why you need a lawyer and how they can help you out with the surrogacy process.
A Lawyer Can Help You Understand The Legal Hurdles Of Using A Surrogate
The laws behind using a surrogate vary from state to state. A lawyer can help explain to you the laws in your state and how they would affect your attempts to use a surrogate to carry your child.
If you are looking for a surrogate who is willing to be become pregnant through an embryo transfer, where someone else's egg and sperm will be implanted into her, you are planning on a using a gestational surrogate. In this type of arrangement, the woman who is carrying your child will not have any genetic links to your child; your child will be completely yours genetically. If any complications arise, this will help establish your and your partner's parentage of the child.
This is generally looked at differently than a surrogacy situation where the woman is artificially inseminated with someone else's sperm but the surrogate's egg is used with the promise that the baby will be yours. In this situation, the surrogate will be biologically related to the child, and thus your surrogacy may be treated as an adoption in the eyes of your state. This type of situation can be more legally tricky than a gestational surrogacy, because the women carrying your child will have all the legal rights of a birth mother to your child that your state allows. Ultimately, that means your surrogate could change their mind throughout the process and deny the adoption and termination of their parental rights.
A Lawyer Can Help You Draw Up A Surrogacy Agreement
Before you begin the insemination process, you need to have your surrogate sign a surrogacy agreement in order to protect the interest of your child.
This agreement should lay out in detail exactly how you will compensate the surrogate for their medical care. It should establish that you and your partner fully intend to become this child's legal parent and that you fully intend to raise this child without any involvement from the surrogate.
Additionally, this agreement should go over what will happen if any medical emergencies should arise during the course of the surrogate's pregnancy, as well as how they will be dealt with and who will make those decisions.
A Lawyer Can Go Over Any Agreements From The Surrogate
Your surrogate may have their own legal agreement that they want you to sign. Your attorney can look over their agreement and make sure that your interests in the child are not compromised. They can suggest changes to the agreement that will protect your right to be the legal parent to the child your surrogate is carrying.
Surrogacy exists in some murky legal water; before you go down this path, make sure that you have a family lawyer who has experience dealing with surrogacy to help you. They can help you understand the legal situation in your state, and help you draw up legal documents to protect your interest should you choose to go forth with a surrogacy.
For professional legal help, contact a law firm such as GSJones Law Group, P.S.
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