Surrogacy: legal rights of parents and surrogate mothers

1. Rights of surrogate mothers: from the UK to Ukraine
2. Rights of biological parents in the case of surrogacy
3. International legislation on surrogacy
4. New ways of establishing legal parenthood
5. Great Britain
6. Greece
7. US
8. Ukraine 

In some countries where surrogacy programmes are legal, attempts are made to limit the access of foreigners to the service, to complicate and lengthen the process of legalisation of newborns, and there are problems with the recognition of the legal validity of contracts. The war in Ukraine has led to active commercial promotion of new reproductive tourism destinations. The attempt to fight for the rights of the child in these countries sets worrying precedents. Here are some of them: 

• In the US, Donald Trump's executive order aims to abolish US citizenship for children born through surrogacy;
• In Argentina, the surrogacy industry is now virtually at a standstill pending a Constitutional Court decision to recognise surrogacy contracts after accusations of human trafficking by biological parents: news1, news2;
• In Georgia, the authorities are attempting to ban surrogacy for foreigners.

In the current uncertainty, the information on the websites of clinics and agencies is all mutual rewriting that does not answer questions. It is difficult for future parents and surrogate mothers to understand in which country and clinic their rights will be protected and the reproductive programme will be safely completed with the birth of a child. We will provide reliable data.

Rights of surrogate mothers: from the UK to Ukraine

The rights of surrogate mothers and the rights of surrogate parents vary greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and require detailed research for all involved in the process. Understanding the legal rights of a surrogate mother can protect birth parents from choosing the wrong country for a programme where the gestational carrier will want to keep the baby. 

What rights a surrogate has in each case is determined by national law and agreements made. 

Great Britain

The legal rights of surrogate mothers in the UK provide that these women are automatically recognised as the legal parent of the child at birth, regardless of the child's biological origin. 

Do surrogate mothers have rights to compensation for expenses? Yes, the legal rights of surrogate mothers in the UK include the right to reimbursement of reasonable expenses, but commercial surrogacy is prohibited. Surrogate rights also guarantee access to full pregnancy-related medical care, psychological support and legal support at all stages of the programme.

The gestational carrier has the right to make decisions regarding her health during the pregnancy. What rights the surrogate has in medical emergencies is determined in advance in an agreement between the parties, based on the priority of her life and health.

The gestational surrogate has the right to change her mind and keep the newborn. In recent years, however, there have been no high-profile scandals related to the surrogate mother's desire to keep the child for herself. However, flawed legislation leaves this possibility open.

When conducting a reproductive programme in the UK the intended parents are very much dependent on the goodwill of the surrogate mother, her lawyer (if any accompanies her on the programme) and the mood of the local authorities who can cause you a lot of problems.

Greece

Residents of the European Union may be interested in Greece from the point of view of territorial proximity and ease of legalisation of the child. This is an excellent destination for reproductive tourism: your child will receive a European birth certificate, where you will immediately be listed as the legal parents, but there are important nuances.

Surrogate mothers here have the right to provide services exclusively on a non-commercial basis, receiving only compensation for expenses incurred up to €10,000 (in reality, unofficial surrogate mother compensation in 2025 is about €22,000). Greek law strongly protects the rights of the surrogate mother and the biological parents: the gestational carrier has no right to withdraw from the programme after the embryo transfer or to keep the newborn. The intended parents receive a European-style birth certificate, where they are listed as the legal parents of the child.

The only significant restriction is that the surrogate mother is only entitled to participate in the programme after a court order. In practice it takes about 6-8 months to obtain this decision, despite the 30 days stated on the websites of clinics and agencies.

Accordingly, if you need to change the surrogate mother due to non-arrival or termination of pregnancy, add at least a year to the duration of the programme. A court decision does not guarantee a pregnancy, so the programme in Greece may take an indefinite period of time.

US

Despite Donald Trump's sensational executive order (which has three court injunctions), surrogacy in the US is very attractive, not only in terms of citizenship, but also full legality and robust protection of the rights of the surrogate mother and the rights of the biological parents in the case of surrogacy. In surrogacy-friendly states (California, Florida, New Jersey and others), the surrogacy contract protects the surrogate's rights to medical care before, during and after the programme, to receive a fee, psychological and legal support. However, it also clearly defines that the gestational carrier has waived all rights to the child at the time of signing.

Currently, due to the executive order mentioned above, obtaining US citizenship for your child is an uncertain issue. If you are currently planning a programme, consider whether it is worth spending a minimum of $150,000 with no guarantee that your child will be born and obtain citizenship, if for $65,000 in Ukraine you are guaranteed to become parents.

Ukraine 

Since 2002, surrogacy has been fully legal in Ukraine, clearly regulated by law and supported at the state level. According to the law, the rights of a surrogate mother do not include custody of the newborn, and the child born under the surrogacy programme is legally the child of the biological parents. The birth certificate immediately records the biological parents.

Despite the hostilities, Ukrainian clinics have adapted their offerings, adding the possibility of becoming parents without visiting Ukraine through distance programmes. Such programmes with guaranteed results are offered, in particular, by Feskov Human Reproduction Group, which recently received the prestigious awards of Gold Award Winner Entrepreneur of The Year, Bronze Award Winner - Team of The Year and Bronze Award Winner - Leader of The Year. With a distance programme, your child can be born in virtually any country you choose, and you pay only for the result, regardless of how many IVF attempts it took to achieve it.

Rights of biological parents in the case of surrogacy

The rights of surrogate parents in most countries where surrogacy is legal are universal. They include:

• the right to obtain full custody of the child after birth;
• participation in medical decisions during pregnancy;
• receiving full information about the health status of the foetus;
• entering into a detailed agreement regulating all aspects of surrogacy (in most jurisdictions);
• being present at the birth;
• choosing a medical facility and doctors;
• obtaining documentation of parenthood. 

The rights of biological parents in the case of surrogacy vary from country to country and require prior legalisation. In the UK, for example, surrogacy contracts can be recognised as legally void. In Greece, USA and Ukraine it is a full-fledged document that gives unambiguous answers to the questions: whether surrogate mothers have rights and to what extent, what rights do the prospective parents have, regulates the procedure of interaction, settlements, control, mutual obligations, dispute resolution, and also implements multi-stage protection of the rights of all parties to the reproductive programme.

Obtaining documents confirming parenthood depends not only on the country, but also on the marital status. In the case of surrogacy for women without a partner, the biological mother in some countries will be immediately registered on the birth certificate, while in others she will face many months of court hearings to confirm her parental rights.

Therefore, before choosing a direction for your family situation - seek advice from our specialists - this will save you from making a mistake that will cost you many months of litigation, bills for lawyers' services and the prospect of being left without a child.

International legislation on surrogacy

There is no single comprehensive treaty on surrogacy at the international level. And, according to recent trends in the world, there will not be one. There is an increasing influence of the main international legal principles:

1. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
2. The Hague Conference on Private International Law.
3. European Convention on Human Rights. 
4. Inclusion of forced surrogacy in the updated directive against human trafficking by the EU Council and representatives of the European Parliament.

Thus, surrogacy (especially commercial surrogacy) is considered a form of human trafficking from the point of view of EU legislation. In the future, people who dream of having a child will have fewer and fewer opportunities to fulfil their dreams without breaking the law.

Nevertheless, in parallel, attempts are being made to develop some "ecological" approaches to surrogacy that protect women from exploitation, but also ensure the rights of the intended parents.

Surrogacy in the UK is underpinned by the key principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, its Additional Protocols, General Comments and Concluding Observations:

• Article 7: the right of the child to know his parents (excludes anonymity).
• Article 3: the interests of the child as a primary consideration.
• Article 35 calls on countries to 'take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent the abduction, sale or trafficking of children'.

The Hague Conference on Private International Law is working on a project to create international standards for parenthood and surrogacy.

The European Court of Human Rights, drawing on the European Convention on Human Rights, considers international surrogacy in the context of 'fait accompli', 'public policy' and 'the best interests of the child'.

These principles focus on protecting the rights of children, preventing exploitation and providing legal certainty in cross-border cases. However, as can be seen in the news from Argentina, a number of cases have witnessed a misinterpretation of the protection of children's rights by removing them from their families and severely limiting the rights of biological parents in the case of surrogacy.

New ways of establishing legal parenthood

There are two main approaches to establishing legal parenthood in surrogacy that are evolving in different jurisdictions.

One way to establish legal parenthood is through a pre-birth order - a prior judicial recognition of the child's descent from the biological parents. Such orders are issued in some US states even before the birth of the child to eliminate uncertainty and confirm the rights of surrogate parents.

The concept of automatic recognition of parenthood is evolving: for example, in Georgia and Ukraine, if there is a genetic link between the intended parents and the child, parenthood is automatically established without additional procedures.

In 2025, in light of recent world events, one of the few ways to protect the rights of surrogate parents and not to violate the rights of the surrogate mother is to conduct the programme in countries where surrogacy is legal and reliably regulated by well-established legislation. Request a free consultation with our managers and we will find the right countries for you, depending on your nationality, family status and wishes.