What are the rights and responsibilities of a surrogate mother?

Legal provision of surrogate motherhood is one of the most complex and unregulated issues in the field of family law of Ukraine. Its relevance is due to the lack of sufficient normative regulation of the surrogacy procedure in Ukraine and the need to solve the problems that arise in practice during the implementation of the surrogacy program.

Although the surrogate mother carries and gives birth to the child, she is not genetically related to the child and does not legally have any parental rights over the child.

The law defines that the parents of a child born with the use of assisted reproductive technologies are the spouses whose genetic material is used for conception.

Therefore, it is the biological parents who must pick up the child from the maternity hospital, register its birth, provide a surname and first name.

In the birth certificate of the child, the parents indicate the biological parents, the certificate does not contain any information about the surrogate mother or the way the child was born.

In turn, the surrogate mother does not have the right to keep the child if she wants to do so after the birth of the child. Otherwise, her actions will be challenged in court.

Therefore, the contract with the surrogate mother usually provides for sanctions (for example, in the form of a fine) for the woman's violation of its terms.

In addition, the surrogate mother does not have the right to challenge maternity in court.