Family Law

San Jose Family Law Attorney Discusses California Surrogacy and Adoption Laws

By Scott Sagaria

San Jose Family Law Attorney Discusses California Surrogacy and Adoption Laws

Lately, Sagaria Law has received several calls about surrogacy and adoption. Surrogacy comes in two main forms: gestational or traditional. Gestational surrogacy is where the embryo and resulting child is genetically related to both parents. Traditional surrogacy involves the use of donor eggs and sperm, or artificial insemination.

Surrogacy law in California is governed by 2 Supreme Court cases: Johnson v. Calvert and Marriage of Buzzanca. Johnson is a case of a gestational surrogate (genetic material from both parents, surrogate to carry the child), and the Supreme Court ruled that when two women have valid claims to motherhood, the tiebreaker is the intent at the time of conception. Therefore, the natural mother of a child is the person who intended to bring about the birth of a child and raise it as her own. In Marriage of Buzzanca, the Court dealt with a case of two infertile parties who used donor sperm and donor eggs to implant in a paid surrogate. In that case, the court held that where a married couple, unable to procreate on their own, intends to bring about the birth of a child through the use of medical technology, those individuals will be held to be the legal parents, regardless of genetics. This holding should apply to surrogacy cases where the surrogate has been artificially inseminated with the intended father?s sperm, but since there is no clear ruling on this particular issue, it is possible the court would decide differently under that set of circumstances.

In California, the intended parents can only be listed on the birth certificate if there is a court judgment naming them as the parents. If no such judgment is to be had before birth, the parents will need to adopt the child(ren) to become the legal parents. It is advisable to seek a legal judgment in advance of the birth to ensure there is no delay in obtaining the status of legal parents.

Here at Sagaria Law, we offer a full range of family law and legal services including divorce, paternity, adoption, child custody and visitation matters, child support, spousal support, alimony, juvenile dependency, domestic violence, division of property, grandparent visitation and custody, etc. We have seven Northern California locations including San Jose, San Francisco, Redwood City, Fremont, Salinas, Roseville and Sacramento. We offer a free thirty minute consultation, either in person at any of our offices, or over the phone. Call our offices today and we can connect you with an attorney immediately or we can schedule your free consultation with one of our family law attorneys: (408) 279-2288 or (800) 941-6730 or visit www.sagarialaw.com

Full post as published by California Family Law Blog on June 16, 2009 (boomark / email).