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Surrogacy parentage presumptions

Published (3/20/2009)
By Mike Cook
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When a woman who has had a hysterectomy wants a child, an egg donor and a woman to carry the baby to term must be found.

Because current law assumes that genetic parents are birth parents, Steve Snyder said a handful of court documents must now be filed at a cost of many hundreds of dollars or more, and court appearances must be made — even if all parties to the surrogacy agree.

An attorney who has practiced in this area for more than 20 years and chairman of the American Bar Association Reproductive and Genetic Technologies Committee, Snyder said current laws are outdated. “They were drafted before genetics were split in terms of creating parentage, before egg donors were possible, before surrogate pregnancies were possible. It has an archaic way of establishing parentage that presumes the genetic parents are the birth parents.”

Rep. Steve Simon (DFL-St. Louis Park) sponsors HF890 to help update and streamline the process.

“This is a bill that has nothing to do with whether you think assisted reproduction is good, bad or otherwise. But it exists out there, and we want to make sure all our laws reflect the circumstances where all the parties agree,” Simon said.

Approved on a split-voice vote March 16 by the House Civil Justice Committee, the bill awaits action by the full House. A companion, SF436, sponsored by Sen. Linda Higgins (DFL-Mpls), awaits action by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Simon said the bill does four things:

• it says the same rules that apply to paternity determinations would also apply to maternity determinations;

• establishes a presumption of paternity if the parties expressly agree that there is an assisted reproduction agreement;

• allows courts to award custody based on agreement of the parties; and

• it allows prebirth orders of maternity or paternity.

“If there are contested procedures, the existing paternity law determines them,” Snyder said. “It says nothing about the procedure as to permitting or facilitating compensation.”

Minnesota Family Council President Tom Prichard expressed concern this would promote surrogacy and help with “facilitating movement away from biological parents being the parents of their children.”

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