Among other areas of practice, Lisa Paige Glass is an experienced surrogacy lawyer with her own law practice in Boca Raton, Florida. Surrogacy law can be complicated and confusing, but Lisa has been working in the field for many years and is experienced at creating successful surrogacy agreements and happy families.
What is Surrogacy?
There are 2 types of surrogacy: traditional and gestational. In both types of surrogacy, the intended result is for a surrogate to voluntarily carry a baby through gestation until birth for another couple as the intended parents, or commissioning parents.
Traditional surrogacy is when a surrogate donates her own ovum to create a pregnancy with either the sperm of the intended father or donated sperm. A written agreement is required prior to commencing the pregnancy, but because the egg is the surrogate’s, it is considered a pre-planned adoption, and the surrogate must consent to the adoption after the child is born, and the commissioning couple must commence an adoption proceeding to be finalized in court in order to both be considered the legal parents of the child. Due to the risk involved, this form of surrogacy has become much less common, making up only about 5% of surrogacy agreements.
Gestational Surrogacy is significantly more common. In gestational surrogacy, the gestational carrier has no biological relation to the child. The embryo is created with the sperm and ovum of one or both intended parents, or donor egg and sperm are used. When the child is born, the commissioning parents assume legal parental rights over the child and only go to court for an order affirming parentage. The surrogate is not considered the legal parent of the child, so no adoption is necessary.
Surrogacy in Florida
Just like adoption, surrogacy laws and policies are created by the individual states. Florida is one of the more surrogacy-friendly states, allowing both traditional and gestational surrogacy. A surrogacy requires a written agreement between the intended parents and the surrogate mother, as well as a Declaration of Parentage filed for the intended parents to be listed on the birth certificate.
As a surrogate, you:
- Are the only individual who can consent to the clinical intervention and management of the pregnancy.
- Must agree to undergo reasonable medical treatment and adhere to reasonable medical advice on prenatal health throughout the pregnancy.
- Must agree to relinquish any and all parental rights upon the child’s birth to the intended parents.
- Must agree to assume parental rights for the child if neither one of the commissioning parents is the genetic parent.
Becoming a Surrogate in Florida
If you are a woman in Florida interested in becoming a surrogate, you should be aware that every surrogacy agency has standards they set. Here are some of the requirements to becoming a surrogate for intended parents represented by the surrogacy lawyer Lisa Paige Glass:
- Be between 18 and 39 years of age
- No significant history of mental health illness
- Be within a healthy BMI and weight range
- No current or significant history of substance abuse
- No current or significant history of tobacco use and live in a tobacco-free home
- Delivered and raised at least 1 child
- No history of pregnancy complications or recurrent miscarriages
- No more than 2 c-sections
- Be able to pass a criminal background check
- Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident
Why Consider Surrogacy?
Surrogacy is a complex, emotional process, but in the end can be extremely rewarding for every person involved. There are many reasons why women choose to become a surrogate mother and even more reasons why couples and individuals decide to pursue surrogacy to have a child.
Reasons to Become a Surrogate:
- Life is the greatest gift that can be given, and as a volunteer mother, you get to give that gift to deserving parents.
- Some women simply love the experience of pregnancy. Surrogacy gives the opportunity to be pregnant again.
- Surrogacy is a selfless act, and as a volunteer surrogate, you would be a great role model for your community.
- Although it should never be the sole reason you become a surrogate, generous financial compensation is standard for surrogate agreements.
Reasons to Choose a Surrogacy for Your Child:
- Same-sex couples are not able to have their own biological children together, so surrogacy is a common choice.
- Medical conditions commonly prevent women from being able to conceive and carry their own baby full term.
- Waiting until later in life to have children is becoming more and more common. Even with modern medicine, pregnancy at an older age increases risks. Some women opt for a surrogate to minimize risks of a pregnancy.
- Some individuals and couples decide to use surrogacy for personal or social reasons beyond not being able to convince or carry the child on their own. However, in Florida, a commissioning couple can only enter into a contract for gestational surrogacy when, within reasonable medical certainty as determined by a licensed physician, the commissioning mother cannot physically gestate a pregnancy to term, the gestation will cause a risk to the health of the commissioning mother, or the gestation will cause a risk to the health of the fetus. See § 742.15, Fla. Stat.
These are just a few reasons why surrogacy is chosen. Every individual has his or her own reasons for going this route. No matter what your reasons are, surrogacy lawyer Lisa Paige Glass is ready to help you through the process and help you start or expand your family.
Finding a Surrogate Mother
As a commissioning parent, you want to make sure to find a surrogate mother with whom you are comfortable with and whom you trust. As your surrogacy attorney, Lisa ensures that the surrogate mothers with whom she works are thoroughly and professionally screened to ascertain that they are as physically and emotionally fit as possible to take on the responsibilities of surrogacy and carry your child to term. If you are ready to start your surrogacy journey, contact South Florida surrogacy lawyer Lisa Paige Glass at Glass Law Office at 561-614-6060.