Surrogacy Laws Worldwide: Sensible Surrogacy

Surrogacy is not legal in many European nations, and may even include criminal penalties.

Worldwide Surrogacy:
Surrogacy Laws Around the World

Most western countries prohibit all surrogacy arrangements. In some extreme jurisdictions, civil and criminal penalties apply for the people who enter into these kinds of arrangements.

Surrogacy Laws in the United States
United States laws on paid surrogacy vary widely from state to state. Some states facilitate surrogacy and surrogacy contracts, others simply refuse to enforce them, and some penalize commercial surrogacy.

Surrogacy friendly states tend to enforce both commercial and altruistic surrogacy contracts and offer ways for the intended parents to be recognized as the child's legal parents. Some surrogacy friendly states only offer support for married heterosexual couples.

In California, for example, the practice is unregulated and the government is officially silent; although California has some of the strongest court precedents protecting the rights of intended parents.

In New York the law prohibits surrogacy. Parties who enter a paid surrogacy agreement may be fined $500. Those who arrange such contracts may be fined $10,000 for the first offense. The second offense is a felony.
Other states, like Oregon and Washington allow altruistic surrogacy only, with no payments to the surrogate mother.

Surrogacy Laws in Europe
In most European countries (other than Spain), any surrogacy arrangement that is either commercial or altruistic is illegal or unlawful and is not sanctioned by the law. In France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Italy, and others the courts have stated that any surrogacy contract in void and any couple attempting surrogacy will not be allowed to adopt the child.

In the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands, altruistic surrogacy is legal while commercial surrogacy is illegal. Surrogacy contracts are not legally enforceable, so the surrogate mother remains the legal parent of the child, even if they are genetically unrelated.

In Sweden, surrogacy is not clearly regulated. Surrogacy is treated similarly to adoption of a child from a living parent. Thus the surrogate mother has the right to keep the child if she changes her mind until the adoption, while the biological father may also claim right to the child.

Surrogacy Laws in Canada
The Assisted Human Reproduction Act (AHRC) permits only altruistic surrogacy: surrogate mothers may be reimbursed for approved expenses but payment of any other consideration or fee is illegal. The province of Quebec, however, prohibits all surrogacy.

Compare these to surrogacy laws in India.