Twenty-eight years after it outlawed surrogacy contracts—contracts calling for a woman to carry and bear a child and then (along with her spouse, if any) renounce all parental rights to the child, turning the child over to another individual or couple for adoption, regardless of whether there is payment involved—New York State has turned in a different direction, allowing for legally enforceable surrogacy agreements, subject to strictures intended to address the numerous and diverse concerns that have long fueled opposition to surrogacy.

The Child-Parent Security Act (CPSA) was enacted in April, 2020 and will take effect on Feb. 15, 2021. Encompassing amendments and additions to the Domestic Relations Law (DRL), the Family Court Act (FCA), the Public Health Law, the General Business Law (GBL), the Estates, Powers and Trusts Law, the Social Services Law and the Insurance Law, the CPSA establishes a statutory framework for various forms of assisted reproduction, with a focus on providing legal parentage to “intended parent(s)” without the necessity of adoption proceedings, without the danger of a successful lawsuit brought by a surrogate or donor who has a change of heart, and without respect to the gender or (for the most part) marital status of the intended parent(s),while protecting the rights (and limiting the legal liabilities) of surrogates and donors of gametes ( eggs and sperm) and embryos, and establishing the legal rights of children born via assisted reproduction. But this article will focus on the CPSA’s provisions with respect to surrogacy.

Longstanding Concerns About Surrogacy

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