Even with this change in the law, which facilitates access to surrogacy for single people, it will still be necessary for parental orders or adoption to be necessary for the parents to become the legal parents of the child. It is a criminal offence for third parties to negotiate the terms of a surrogacy agreement for payment (for example, a lawyer cannot represent PI or surrogates by agreeing to terms). Host surrogacy (also known as pregnancy) is when the surrogate does not provide her own egg to achieve pregnancy. In such pregnancies, embryos are created in vitro and transferred to the uterus of the surrogate mother with: Law 3305/2005 (“Application of medically assisted procreation”) Surrogacy in Greece is completely legal and is only one of the few countries in the world to provide legal protection to intended parents. Intended parents must possess certain qualifications and are brought before a family court judge before travelling. As long as they meet the conditions, appearing before the court is procedural and their request will be granted. Currently, intended parents must live in a heterosexual partnership or be a single woman. Women must be able to prove that there is a medical indication that they cannot tolerate and must not be over 50 years of age at the time of conclusion of the contract. As in all jurisdictions, surrogates must pass medical and psychological tests in order to prove to the court that they are medically and mentally fit. The peculiarity of Greece is that it is the only country in Europe and one of the few countries in the world where the surrogate mother has no rights over the child. The intended parents become the legal parents upon conception, and the surrogate mother is not mentioned anywhere in the hospital or birth documents.

Intended parents are listed as parents. This also applies if an egg or sperm donor is used by one of the partners. An additional advantage for Europeans is that the Schengen Agreement allows them to return home freely as soon as the baby is born and to deal with citizenship issues at that time instead of going to their own embassy in Greece. Under the old regime (in accordance with Article 8 of Law 3089/2002), one of the conditions for granting judicial authorisation for surrogacy was also the fact that the surrogate mother and intended parents had to be Greek citizens or permanent residents. However, the law has recently changed (in July 2014) and the new provisions of L. 4272/2014 now provide that surrogacy is allowed to applicants or surrogate mothers who have their permanent or temporary residence in Greece. With this new law, Greece becomes the only EU country to have a comprehensive framework to regulate, facilitate and enforce surrogacy, as stated in the explanatory memorandum to Article 17 of L. 4272/2014: “The possibility now extends to applicants or surrogate mothers who have their permanent residence outside Greece”.

The surrogate`s partner (if any) usually needs to attend this first appointment with the surrogate so that they also understand the processes involved (and because, if married or in a registered partnership, they are the child`s legal parent at birth). The surrogate`s partner usually also has to take blood tests for communicable diseases. To address the issue of commercialization of surrogacy, the advisory paper states that the law should not allow commercialization of the process, but should list the headings under which surrogacy can be paid by the intended parents. These headings are as follows (Law Commission, 2019): Prior to 2015, foreign commercial surrogacy was legal in India. [37] India was a destination for surrogacy tourism due to its relatively low cost. Including the cost of airfare, medical procedures and hotels, it was about a third of the price compared to the procedure in the UK. [38] In Balaz v. Union of India The Honourable Supreme Court of India has ruled that the citizenship of the child born through this process will have the citizenship of his surrogate mother.

Surrogacy was regulated by the 2005 Indian Council of Medical Research guidelines. This publication is available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/having-a-child-through-surrogacy/the-surrogacy-pathway-surrogacy-and-the-legal-process-for-intended-parents-and-surrogates-in-england-and-wales Many surrogates and NPs choose to attend fertility clinic appointments together when geographically possible. If NPs are unable to attend appointments, the surrogate may want to keep them fully informed of progress in accordance with their surrogacy agreement. Another problem arises when we look at the process of a parenting order more thoroughly. This process cannot begin without the consent of the surrogate. Even if the surrogate gives consent immediately after the birth of the child, the consent becomes invalid because, in the eyes of the law, the surrogate mother can only give valid consent after at least six weeks after the birth. All this can be considered an infringement of the rights of the intended parents, the surrogate mother, as well as the surrogate child. The delay in transferring parenthood means that the surrogate must take care of the child and all of its expenses until the parenting order is made, even if she doesn`t want to. In the event that the surrogate mother does not wish this, the rights of the child may be violated, as he or she may not be treated properly. This is usually the case, as a surrogate eventually has to give the baby away, so she is not expected to take care of the baby as much as another mother. At the same time, this problem also affects the rights of intended parents who cannot bring their baby home.

Commercial surrogacy arrangements are not legal in the UK. Such agreements were prohibited by the Surrogacy Arrangements Act 1985. [86] Although it is illegal in the United Kingdom to pay more than the cost of surrogacy, the relationship is recognized under section 30 of the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act 1990. Regardless of the contractual or financial consideration for expenses, surrogacy agreements are not legally enforceable, so a surrogate retains the legal right to determination for the child, even if they are not genetically related. Unless a parental or adoption order is made, the surrogate remains the child`s legal mother. [87] [88] The Department of Health and Social Services has worked with health professionals and surrogacy organizations to develop best practice guidelines for health professionals to ensure consistent care for all individuals in a surrogacy arrangement. This is available on page gov.uk. While the health care professional`s duty of care to the surrogate exists, NPs should also receive sensitive and supportive care. If the hospital is talking about something that could impact the baby, their care and well-being, this should usually be directed to the NP(s). This law explicitly stated that surrogacy agreements were “unenforceable” and prohibited both surrogacy, which took place on a commercial basis, and any advertising of surrogacy. Since then, there have been many developments around the surrogacy law.

Importantly, more than 30 years later, surrogacy is still banned in the UK for financial gain; Only compensation for the expenses of the surrogate mother is allowed.