Established Supreme Court Ruling
California is widely regarded as one of the most surrogacy-friendly states in the country because several of California's courts have been hearing surrogacy cases for over twenty years. In all of these cases, the California Supreme Court has ruled that Intended Parents (using a Surrogate, Egg Donor or Sperm Donor) in Assisted Reproduction shall be the legal parents, regardless of genetic connection. The IPs maintain their legal rights as parents regardless of whether or not they used a Surrogate, an Egg and/or Sperm Donor or their own genetic material.
Inconsistency Among Other States
Assisted Reproduction law is generally considered unsettled in most other states, because they have no written laws or legislation regarding Assisted Reproduction. Intended Parents in other states may rightly fear that after their child is born they will have to fight for their legal rights as parents. Because there is this lack of legislation IPs must rely on any case law that exists and/or any custom and practice developed in this area. California is in a better position than most other states regarding this issue, because of the unusually large number of favorable rulings from the state's highest court.
Birth Certificate
California allows Intended Parents to have their names on the original birth certificate. An IP's lawyer may obtain a pre-birth court order prior to the last trimester of pregnancy of the Surrogate. This order is presented to the hospital birth records clerk who fills out a birth certificate worksheet confirming that the Intended Parent's names will go on the original birth certificate. The hospital sends this worksheet to California Vital Records and that office fills out the original birth certificate with the names of only the IPs. In California the name of the surrogate mother is never on the birth certificate.
There were some issues that arose in the past when a traditional versus a gestational surrogate was used. A gestational surrogate does not provide the egg, or genetic material, for the baby. A gestational surrogate goes through the embryo transfer process and carries the baby to term. The egg transferred to the gestational surrogate comes from the Intended Mother or from an egg donor. A traditional surrogate is a woman who is the egg donor for the baby and carries the baby to term. In the past Intended Parents in California had to adopt the child after it's birth, if the surrogate mother decided to keep the baby before the Intended Parents could adopt they could lose the baby. The traditional surrogate, in the past, would have a stronger case than a gestational surrogate because she was biologically related to the baby. This is no longer a serious issue to Intended Parents in California and their rights are much more protected.
For more information visit http://www.alternativeconceptions.com
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