Assisted Reproductive Technology Overview
As an Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) attorney, I help clients with legal matters relating to gamete donation, compensated surrogacy, and compassionate surrogacy. Choosing an assisted reproduction technology lawyer well versed in legal concerns (rights of donors, embryo transfer, confidentiality, compensation, future contact, medical expenses, insurance coverage), and in establishing legal parentage is extremely important. Below we’ve explained some of the main concepts to consider if you are pursuing parenthood through ART.
Intended Parents
Do you want to build your family with the help of a surrogate or an egg, sperm, or embryo donor? We can draft or review the donation or surrogacy agreement that will protect your legal rights and ensure legal parentage is established for your child.
Donors/Surrogates
Are you a person who wants to help someone build their family by being a surrogate or a donor? This is a true gift of hope for someone wanting a child. We provide both legal guidance and support while drafting or reviewing your donation or surrogacy agreement. We will ensure that your rights are protected to the fullest extent.
Donors
There are three types of donors: sperm donors and egg donors (collectively known as gamete donors) as well as embryo donors. These donors are further classified as either anonymous or known.
Sperm Donors
Sperm Donors are men who donate their sperm with the intention of allowing a woman, who is not their sexual partner, to become pregnant through IVF (in-vitro fertilization) or artificial insemination. Sperm donors can be anonymous or identified when working with a sperm bank or a fertility clinic. Sperm donors can also donate directly to known recipients. Attorneys represent recipients and/or sperm donors by drafting or reviewing donor agreements.
Egg Donors
Egg donors are women who provide one or several eggs (ova) with the intention of allowing an individual or a couple to undergo IVF and then transfer the fertilized embryos into the intended parent’s or surrogate’s uterus for gestation. ART attorneys will draft or review donor agreements for both recipients and egg donors.
Embryo Donation
Embryo donation can occur when an individual or couple has completed their family building following a successful IVF cycle and has cryopreserved unused embryos. Embryo donation allows for the transfer of unused embryos to other individuals or couples, enabling them to become parents. Attorneys draft or review embryo donor agreements for both donors and recipients.
Traditional Surrogacy
Traditional surrogacy is an arrangement where a woman agrees to carry and deliver a child for another individual or couple using her own viable egg and a man’s sperm her own viable egg and a man’s sperm. The surrogate is artificially inseminated with the donor/intended father’s sperm.
Gestational Surrogacy
Gestational surrogacy is a legal arrangement where a woman agrees to carry and deliver a child for another individual or couple (the intended parents) through an embryo transfer. A gestational surrogate does not provide any of her own genetic material. As a gestational surrogate, a woman will gestate a child from any combination of the following: intended parents’ gametes, donated gametes, or a combination of the two, with the intent that the intended parents are the legal parents of the child. In surrogacy cases, attorneys draft or review agreements for the intended parents and the other ART parties involved to protect everyone’s rights and interests, including the rights of the child to be born.
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As adoption and reproductive law attorneys, The Law Offices of Laurie B. Goldheim serve as a primary resource, counsel and partner to clients who seek to grow their families by contemporary means and methods, as recognized by the courts of New York and New Jersey.