With the increasing use of assisted reproductive technologies (“ART”), including gamete (sperm, egg, and embryo) donation and the use of gestational carriers and traditional surrogates, particularly coupled with the recognition of same-sex marriages and other societal factors, our world is facing a new frontier of family formation. This new frontier includes the recognition of more
than two legal parents for a child. In most ART arrangements, the intended parents, donors, and gestational carriers or surrogates, their respective attorneys, and other involved professionals, are focused on ensuring and securing the legal parentage of just two resulting parents. In other words, in most ART situations, the donors (whether sperm, egg, or embryo) and the carrier-surrogates want to be “off the hook” as to any and all legal parentage responsibilities. Thus, donation agreements and relevant statutes are pivotal to establishing the intent of the donor to
be only a donor of genetic material and not a parent. Likewise, gestational carrier or surrogacy agreements are replete with language clarifying that the carrier-surrogate will not be a parent and does not intend in any way to be a parent. And, on the other hand, in most instances, the committed “duo” of intended parents want to ensure that they are the only two possible parents “on the hook” as the legal parents and that no one else in the ART arrangement can claim parentage.