Gestational vs. Surrogate vs Adoption
What is best for you and your family?
Each family situation is unique and different. Each family needs to decide what is best for their family. Things to consider are the emotional complications of a gestational vs surrogate carrier or adoption can have on all parties involved. The legal complications that could arise using a surrogate over a gestational carrier or adoption, the cost of either carrier, or the wait times finding a surrogate over a gestational carrier or being picked by a potential mother for adoption.
The decision to adopt, use a gestational carrier, or use a surrogate depends on many factors that include cost, biology, and timeline of achieving your family.
Below is information regarding all three. Contact the Denis Law Group today to find out more about how to start your family.
What is a Gestational Agreement?
A gestational agreement is a legal contract between the intended parents and a gestational carrier that outlines the rights, obligations, and expectations of all parties involved. A gestational agreement is usually necessary when a woman is unable to get pregnant or give birth without risking harm to herself or the unborn child.
A gestational agreement typically covers the following information:
- Parental rights and custody
- The intended parents have immediate custody of the child after birth
- Medical bills
- The agreement should outline who will pay for medical bills and other insurance obligations
- Financial Considerations
- The agreement should address how the gestational carrier compensation and expenses
- Medical decision making
- The agreement should outline who will make medical decisions during pregnancy.
- Contract
- The agreement should outline how the intended parents and gestational carrier will communicate throughout the process
- Abstaining from sexual activity
- The agreement may include a period during which the gestational carrier agrees to abstain from sexual activity throughout the pregnancy
What is the difference between a surrogate and a gestational carrier?
A surrogate is when a woman shares a genetic link to the child. A gestation carrier is a woman who carries a child for another couple with no genetic connection to the child.
Cost is another big factor. It is more expensive to have a gestational carrier vs a surrogate carrier.
How a Gestational Carrier is Implanted?
For a heterosexual couple, your doctor or fertility specialist will gather your eggs and fertilize them with your partner’s or spouse’s sperm. After the embryo is formed, the gestational carrier will undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF) and be implanted. There will be no genetic connection between the gestational carrier and your egg/sperm.
For same-sex couples and single parents, the process is a little different. Female same-sex couples need a sperm donor, and male partners need an egg bank. Single parents may need to either use a sperm donor or egg donation.
What is a Surrogate Agreement?
A surrogacy agreement, also known as a surrogacy contract, is a legal document that outlines the rights and responsibilities of both the intended parents and the surrogate mother. It is the foundation for establishing the intended parents’ parental rights. This agreement clearly outlines each party’s rights, roles, and responsibilities before, during, and after the pregnancy.
A surrogacy agreement is a little different from a gestational agreement but typically includes the following:
- Compensation
- A monetary amount is agreed upon to pay the surrogate carrier which includes living expenses and medical expenses that are not covered by insurance.
- Establish how that money will be paid if it is an escrow account trust account or direct payment to the surrogate carrier.
- Communication
- How often all the parties will communicate with each other and about what they will communicate with each other
- Risks and Liabilities
- Risks of a surrogate not relinquishing the child after delivery, medical risks associated with the pregnancy, and delivery of the child
- Agreements regarding the surrogate’s health and/or lifestyle choices
- Expectations of all participants
- Health and lifestyle standards for the surrogate and the expectations of the intended parents
- Intentions of both the intended parents and the surrogate carrier, may include a statement from the intended parents that they will assume parental responsibility and rights of the child and a statement from the surrogate affirming the parent rights of the intended parents as to the child(ren) of the pregnancy.
- Privacy issues for all parties such as postings of updates and images on social media
- Parentage Orders
- Explanation of the legal rights of the surrogate and the intended parents. Explanation of the responsibilities of each party through the stages of the pregnancy, delivery, and relinquishment of the child from the surrogate to the intended parents.
- Breach of Agreement
- Explanation of what constitutes a material breach versus a non-material breach and what the remedies of any of the breaches would be.
How a Surrogate is impregnated?
A doctor will take the sperm of the intended father and artificially inseminate the surrogate carrier. After the surrogate’s egg is fertilized, pregnancy results. The surrogate carrier will have a genetic connection to the child and as a result of this, the surrogate carrier will have legal rights that will need to be terminated at the birth of the child.
In traditional surrogacy, the biological mother is the surrogate carrier. As a result of this, the surrogate carrier will need to relinquish her legal rights to the intended parents.
Adoption options
There are several options for adoption. Some of these options are private adoptions, open adoptions, semi-private/open adoptions, international adoptions, and adoptions through Child Protective Services.
As with surrogate carriers or gestational carriers, some things to consider are the financial security you have, the family involvement, the relationship stability between yourself and your partner, what further plans you may have, and what is ultimately best for the child.
How does adoption work?
Adoption works similarly to surrogacy and gestational options. In the adoption process, you select an agency that can handle the entire process or find an agency that can help with part of the process. You will complete an application, undergo a home study, match with a child (typically the mother will pick you up through the agency you choose), placement of the child after the child is born, and the finalization of all paperwork.
Deciding the right adoption type for your family is the single most important part of this process. There are private domestic adoptions, foster care to adopt, relative adoptions, stepparent adoptions, or even independent adoptions. Each with its pros and cons.
Adoption fees in Texas range from $5,000 to $50,000 depending on the contracts that are drawn up. Make sure you are ready for this step. Be clear on your reasons for wanting to adopt and be realistic with any of your limits you may have.
Adoption Agencies
Adoption agencies can help biological mothers connect with their intended parents. Adoption agencies can provide professional services such as family selections, attorneys, counseling, and guidance in developing the right adoption plan for you and your soon to be family.
Here is a list of local and national professionals that serve the state of Texas for adoptions:
Foster Care
There are thousands of children in the foster care system ranging from newborns to late-aged teenagers who are waiting for love and permanency of belonging to a family. The average age of a child in the state of Texas for adoption is 8 years old.
Here are a couple of places you can go in Texas to adopt:
International Adoptions
Sometimes you may have to go outside the state of Texas to start your family. Millions of children around the world are waiting for a family and your family could be the family that provides love, permanency, and security that a child will need to grow and flourish.
You will need to find a Hague-accredited adoption agency first to work with. The Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption is the framework for cooperation between authorities of different countries and sets the minimum safeguards to ensure that adoptions take place with the child’s best interest at the forefront.
Here are a couple of places you can go in Texas to adopt internationally: