Legal expertise and guidance

A Gestational Carrier Agreement is a surrogacy contract between Intended Parents, the surrogate, and her partner/spouse, if any. This agreement happens before the embryo transfer and details the parties' rights, obligations, intentions, and expectations to each other in connection with the surrogacy process. It also addresses location of delivery, future contact between the parties, insurance (both health and life), payment of medical bills, liability for medical complications, and Intended Parents' presence during doctor's visits and at delivery. Financial considerations such as the surrogate’s compensation and expenses, including lost wages, legal fees, childcare, and maternity clothes are also addressed. We connect you with expert legal counsel to ensure you have a properly executed surrogacy agreement, customized to your unique circumstances and the legal requirements of the state where your surrogate resides.

Courts regularly establish parental rights for intended parents through a pre-birth court order, which declares the intended parents as the legal parents and directs the state to create the child’s birth certificate listing both intended parents (or the single parent alone). In many states, the court process is typically seamless and everything is handled between the attorneys for the intended parents and for the gestational carrier. Surrogacy Attorney, Melissa Torto, our colleague at ConceiveAbilities, notes that while an in-person hearing is usually not required, this can vary by judge.

Like pre-birth orders, post-birth orders establish the intended parents’ parentage. Certain states need these types of orders to add the non-biological parents to the baby’s birth certificate.

Egg Donation is a form of assisted reproductive technology in which a woman provides her eggs to Intended Parents for use in an in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure (with either the Intended Mother or a gestational surrogate carrying the fetus) with the intent that the Intended Parents will become the legal parents of the child. There are various types of matches with egg donation - anonymous, semi-known, and known. Because each egg donation arrangement is unique and sensitive, we connect you with expert legal counsel to ensure you have a well-drafted agreement.

In the egg donation agreement, the parties identify who is intended to be the legal parents of the unborn child; what, if any, involvement the donor will have with the child; and whether the identity of the donor will be revealed to the child or other family members. The agreement has provisions whereby the donor agrees to cooperate in any legal proceedings necessary to establish parentage of the Intended Parents. A well-drafted agreement protects all parties.

Sperm donation is a form of assisted reproductive technology in which a man provides sperm to Intended Parents so that they may conceive a child via artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization (IVF) with the intent that Intended Parents will become the legal parents of the child. There are various types of matches with sperm donation - anonymous, semi-known, and known. Because each sperm donation arrangement is unique and sensitive, we connect you with expert legal counsel to ensure you have a well-drafted agreement so that each party fully understands their rights and responsibilities.

In the sperm donation agreement, the parties identify who is intended to be the legal parents of the unborn child; what, if any, involvement the sperm donor will have with the child; and whether the identity of the donor will be revealed to the child or other family members. The agreement has provisions whereby the donor agrees to cooperate in any legal proceedings necessary to establish parentage of the Intended Parents. A well-drafted agreement protects all parties.

Same sex Intended Parents engaged in “co-maternity” (also referred to as “egg sharing”) may elect to use the eggs of one partner, fertilized with donor sperm, to produce embryos which are transferred into the womb of the other partner. One woman is the genetic mother and the other is the gestational mother – there is no egg donor and no surrogate. In this arrangement, a well-drafted co-maternity agreement for Intended Parents provides them with the best and strongest legal protections possible. The agreement states unequivocally that they are combining their reproductive capabilities to conceive a child that they intend to parent together. The agreement will be drafted prior to the IVF cycle, as the medical process should not begin without this type of agreement in place.

Many fertility centers have standardized forms for patients to complete as part of the informed consent process. However, these forms are consents between the Intended Parents and fertility center and between the donors and the fertility center; a legal contract between the Intended Parents and donors is always still required, and both Intended Parents and donors should have separate independent legal representation. Fertility center consent forms do not take into account the nuances of the unsettled field of parentage law in each state. The forms often go beyond the concepts of procedures, benefits, and risks and reach into issues of establishment and relinquishment of parental rights. Such boilerplate provisions in consent forms cannot resolve legal parentage, especially when neither party has separate independent legal representation.

Contact us to gain a solid understanding of your rights and responsibilities regarding fertility center consent forms and legal contracts.

As the use and success of IVF grows, so, too, will the number of frozen embryos in storage. Patients must have clear knowledge and understanding as to what their clinic will do with unused embryos after a certain time period. It is important to establish and clarify your rights to and the future disposition of your cryopreserved unused embryos, and we can assist with this important step.