SaraAnn C. Bennett
ABSTRACT
Surrogacy is an alternative reproductive technology that provides persons unable to have children of their own the means to create life. The use of surrogacy arrangements has skyrocketed over the past 20 years. The law, however, has not advanced as quickly. Because of the ethical implications of having a mother gestate a child for another person, along with the challenge surrogacy arrangements provide to traditional notions of parentage, the majority of state legislatures have shied away from taking a clear position on this controversial issue. As such, many courts are left to decide the legal parentage of children born from surrogacy arrangements without any legislative or judicial guidance, resulting in uncertainty for the parties hoping to participate in and the children created from surrogacy arrangements.
This Comment discusses the current state of surrogacy law in the United States and the need for legislative intervention in Pennsylvania, specifically. The Comment recommends that Pennsylvania adopt a statute that treats surrogacy arrangements as enforceable contracts and provides a procedure through which surrogate contract parties can vest parentage rights and custody in the intended parents. The adoption of such a statute would protect the best interests of the surrogate carriers, the intended parents, and, most importantly, the children.
preferred citation: SaraAnn C. Bennett, Comment, “There’s No Wrong Way to Make a Family”: Surrogacy Law and Pennsylvania’s Need for Legislative Intervention, 118 Penn St. L. Rev. 407 (2013).