Surrogacy with cross-border effects: Reality and law

Abstract

This paper analyzes a topic which is highly ranked in law reviews throughout the world, due to the fact that gestational surrogate motherhood as a fact of life is subjected to very different legal regulation worldwide. Taking advantage of the lack of an international legal framework in this domain and the permissive national regulations of some states, persons who want to become parents of a child who is genetically related to them, use the services of surrogate mothers abroad. The legal parenthood the commissioning persons acquire in the country where the surrogate mother gives birth to the child, and the connected legal status of the child, however, is called into question, because the effects of the international surrogacy are submitted to the rules of private international law of the local state whose nationals the commissioning persons are and / or where they have their residence. The problems are shown through three selected cases of comparative judicial and administrative practices, illustrating the practical difficulties, and speaking in favor of initiatives for drawing up international legal framework for gestational surrogacy with cross-border effects.