A well drafted legal agreement is the foundation of a safe and successful surrogacy journey. In Maryland, while the law is progressive and generally supportive of family building, the legal nuances of these agreements can be complex.
Understanding surrogacy contract basics ensures that intended parents and prospective surrogates are protected, informed, and prepared for the life changing experience ahead. By working with a qualified surrogacy agency and an experienced surrogacy attorney, you can navigate this process with the clarity and peace of mind you deserve.
Do you need more clarity on your surrogacy contract? We can help. Speak with a surrogacy specialist today.
What Should Be Included in a Maryland Surrogacy Contract?
A comprehensive surrogacy contract in Maryland must address every potential scenario to prevent future conflict. Maryland attorneys prioritize transparency and mutual consent, ensuring that all parties enter the journey with shared expectations.
To protect everyone involved, your agreement should include the following essential elements:
- Financial Terms and Compensation: This section provides a detailed breakdown of the surrogate compensation package, including base pay, monthly stipends, and maternity clothing allowances.
- Medical Decision-Making: This provision outlines the protocols for embryo transfer and prenatal care, identifying the primary OB-GYN and establishing a medication approval process.
- Lifestyle and Conduct: These clauses establish healthy boundaries for diet, exercise, and travel to ensure the surrogate is following a safe and medically supported lifestyle.
- Legal Parentage: The contract serves as the primary tool to secure a pre-birth order, declaring intended parents as the sole legal parents before the child is born.
- Termination and Reduction Clauses: These address sensitive medical scenarios, such as severe fetal abnormalities, ensuring all parties are aligned on personal beliefs.
- Labor and Delivery Plans: This section manages expectations for the birth, specifying who will be in the delivery room and outlining post-birth expectations like a pumping agreement.
The Maryland Legal Clearance Process: Step-by-Step
Navigating the legal stage requires a structured approach to ensure every participant's rights are fully secured. Once a match is confirmed, your legal team follows a specific sequence to move you from negotiation to medical readiness:
The attorney for the intended parents initiates the process by drafting a comprehensive agreement. This document is extensive to ensure that everything from financial escrow management to complex "what if" medical scenarios is addressed in writing. To maintain the enforceability of the agreement in Maryland, the surrogate must be represented by her own specialized attorney. This independent counsel ensures she fully understands her rights, advocates for her specific needs, and confirms she is entering the agreement voluntarily. Attorneys for both sides engage in a "red lining" process. This is a constructive back and forth where terms are refined and adjusted until both the intended parents and the surrogate feel the agreement is fair, respectful, and protective of their interests. After the language is perfected, all parties meet with their respective counsel for a final walkthrough. The document is then signed and notarized by the intended parents, the surrogate, and their spouses or partners to make the agreement legally binding. Once the signatures are verified, the attorneys provide a formal "Letter of Legal Clearance" to the fertility clinic. This official document confirms that the legal foundation is complete, giving the medical team the green light to begin the transfer cycle and schedule the embryo transfer.
Can Surrogacy Contracts Be Enforced in Maryland?
Maryland is a surrogacy friendly state. Although there is no specific surrogacy statute, established case law confirms that gestational surrogacy is legal and recognized. Surrogacy contracts are generally enforceable under Maryland law, provided they are properly executed and all parties have independent legal representation.
To ensure enforceability, Maryland courts prioritize:
- Informed Consent: Every participant must fully understand the legal and medical implications of the journey.
- Transparent Financials: Compensation and expense reimbursements must be clearly detailed in the contract.
- Comprehensive Screenings: The surrogate must pass thorough physical and psychological evaluations prior to signing.
American Surrogacy partners only with experienced surrogacy attorneys who understand the nuances of Maryland law, helping ensure that every agreement complies with best legal practices.
What Happens if a Surrogacy Contract is Breached?
Breach of contract occurs when either the surrogate or the intended parents fail to meet the obligations specified in their agreement. Since Maryland relies on judicial precedent rather than a specific surrogacy statute, a breach can lead to logistical and financial complications that require professional resolution.
If the surrogate does not follow the contract, such as failing to follow the medication approval process or travel restrictions, the intended parents may pause or stop compensation. If a serious breach affects the pregnancy or the legal parentage process, a court may enforce the agreement or award financial damages. If the intended parents fail to make required payments, the surrogate may stop medical procedures or seek unpaid compensation. Under Maryland law, the intended parents remain legally and financially responsible for the child at birth.
To protect the relationship and ensure the safety of the pregnancy, most Maryland contracts include a mandatory mediation clause. This requires both parties to work with a neutral mediator to resolve disagreements before entering a courtroom.
Mediation is a confidential and voluntary process designed to reach an amicable solution that serves the best interests of everyone involved. Working with an agency provides an additional layer of support, as your specialist can often help deescalate minor misunderstandings before they become formal legal disputes.
Fair Surrogacy Compensation in Maryland and Payment Structure
Financial security is a primary concern for both surrogates and intended parents. A fair surrogacy compensation package in Maryland is designed to honor the surrogate's physical and emotional commitment while ensuring intended parents understand their financial obligations through the following protections:
- Escrow Account Requirements: The agreement establishes that all funds must be held in a bonded, third party escrow account to ensure the surrogate is paid on time and the intended parents’ funds are used appropriately.
- Base Compensation: This core payment (ranging from $50,000 to $75,000+) is the primary reward for the surrogate's time and effort, typically disbursed in monthly installments after the pregnancy is confirmed.
- Variable Support Items: To ensure the surrogate is never out of pocket, the contract outlines reimbursements for childcare, housekeeping, and lost wages incurred due to medical appointments or doctor ordered bed rest.
- Milestone Fees: The contract defines specific payments for significant events, such as a successful embryo transfer or carrying multiples.
- Payment Schedule Options: The contract defines exactly how compensation is typically disbursed, usually in monthly installments beginning after the confirmation of a fetal heartbeat.
Working with an agency provides this amount of structure, as relying on informal agreements on payments won't offer security the way a contract would.
Medical Decisions and Control During Pregnancy
The contract must clearly define medical rights and decision control. While the contract makes it clear that everyone wants the surrogate to follow doctor's orders, she still has the final say over her own body. No piece of paper can legally force a surrogate to have a medical procedure if she says no.
However, since the success of the journey depends on following the medical plan, choosing not to do what was agreed upon can lead to serious consequences, including losing out on pay or even facing a lawsuit.
To ensure clarity during medical milestones, the contract includes:
- Selection of Providers: The intended parents choose the IVF clinic and the specific embryo to be transferred, while the surrogate typically chooses her own OB-GYN and delivering hospital, provided they are surrogacy friendly and within a reasonable distance.
- Medical Records Access Rights: Intended parents are granted access to medical records related to the pregnancy to stay informed about the baby’s health.
- Medication Protocols: The surrogate agrees to follow the specific medication approval process and schedule outlined by the fertility clinic to ensure the best chance for a successful transfer.
Termination and Selective Reduction Clauses
Decisions regarding selective reduction or termination for medical reasons are some of the most sensitive parts of a surrogacy journey. While Maryland law offers robust protection for reproductive rights, a successful journey depends on a mutual agreement between the intended parents and the surrogate.
It’s essential that both parties share the same foundational ethical views on these topics before a match is even finalized.
Surrogacy contracts in Maryland clearly address the circumstances under which a termination might be considered, such as to protect the surrogate’s health or in the event of severe fetal abnormalities. These agreements also cover selective reduction as a means to safeguard the surrogate's physical well-being during a high risk multiple pregnancy.
At American Surrogacy, we prioritize values based matching to ensure you are paired with a partner who shares your medical and ethical goals, preventing conflict and providing peace of mind from day one.
Lifestyle Clauses: Travel, Diet, and Daily Life
Lifestyle clauses are designed to ensure a healthy environment for the pregnancy while respecting the surrogate's daily life. While these terms are standard in any Maryland surrogacy contract, they represent a mutual commitment to the safety of the baby and the surrogate.
Commonly agreed upon lifestyle expectations include:
- Substance Prohibitions: The contract strictly prohibits the use of tobacco, alcohol, and recreational drugs, as well as unapproved medications or supplements.
- Dietary Guidelines: Surrogates agree to follow common pregnancy diet safety, such as avoiding raw meats, unpasteurized dairy, and high mercury fish.
- Environmental Safety: The agreement may include boundaries regarding exposure to second hand smoke, certain household chemicals, or high risk activities like changing cat litter to avoid toxoplasmosis.
- Travel Restrictions: During the third trimester, surrogates typically agree to stay within a specific distance of their delivering hospital and avoid traveling to areas with known health outbreaks.
- Physical Activity: Guidelines for exercise are established to ensure activities remain "pregnancy safe" and strenuous or high impact sports are avoided.
- Sexual Health and Activity: The contract often includes periods of abstinence around the embryo transfer to prevent accidental natural pregnancy and requires protection to mitigate the risk of STIs.
Delivery Plans and Post-Birth Expectations
The delivery room is where the journey reaches its emotional peak. A clear plan ensures that the birth is a positive experience for everyone.
To prepare for birth and beyond, your contract will specify:
- Delivery Room Presence Rights: The contract specifies exactly who the surrogate wants to have in the room during labor and delivery for support.
- Hospital Plan: This collaborative document outlines specific logistics for the stay, including room assignments for intended parents, administrative paperwork, and how the newborn will be discharged to the parents' care.
- Pumping Agreement: If agreed upon, a pumping agreement contract will outline the duration and compensation for the surrogate providing breast milk after birth.
- Recovery Time Compensation: The contract provides for recovery time compensation to cover lost wages and household support if the surrogate requires an extended leave.
Insurance Requirements for Surrogacy Journeys
Insurance is a critical layer of protection. Without it, medical complications could lead to devastating financial consequences. To protect against the high costs of medical care and provide a safety net for the surrogate and her family, the contract includes:
Surrogate-Friendly Insurance
Your contract requires a professional review of your health insurance to ensure it doesn't have a "surrogacy exclusion." If coverage is missing, Maryland law allows for specialized or ACA compliant plans to cover all pregnancy related medical costs.
Life Insurance Requirement
Intended parents will purchase a term life insurance policy for the surrogate to ensure her own family is protected if the unthinkable happens. This policy typically carries a benefit between $250,000 and $500,000 and names the beneficiaries of her choosing.
Disability Insurance Coverage
The agreement often requires disability insurance to replace the surrogate's income if she is placed on doctor ordered bed rest or experiences complications that prevent her from working.
The Benefits of Professional Agency Support
Working with a qualified agency provides a level of structure and safety that is difficult to replicate on your own. At American Surrogacy, our team manages the complex coordination between medical clinics, insurance brokers, and legal counsel so you can focus on the journey.
Agency support offers several vital safeguards:
We ensure surrogates are medically and psychologically ready for the commitment before a match is even made. Your financial interests are protected by an independent, bonded third party who ensures payments are accurate and on time. Our specialists serve as a supportive buffer, helping you navigate sensitive negotiations and preventing minor misunderstandings from escalating into legal disputes. You are never alone on this path; our team is available around the clock to provide emotional guidance and logistical troubleshooting.
Understanding the Risks of Independent Surrogacy
While some choose an independent surrogacy journey to save on agency fees, the legal and financial risks are significantly higher. Without professional oversight, intended parents and surrogates are forced to manage their own vetting and coordination, which frequently leads to costly oversights.
Common risks of an independent journey include:
- Financial Vulnerability: Relying on informal agreements regarding payments won't offer security the way a contract would. In independent journeys, surrogates may face delays in receiving compensation, while intended parents risk losing funds due to unmanaged expenses or lack of escrow protection.
- Legal Complications: Navigating Maryland's case law landscape without expert coordination increases the risk of errors in the pre-birth order process, potentially delaying legal parentage.
- Lack of Mediation: If a conflict arises regarding medical decisions or lifestyle boundaries, independent parties have no neutral intermediary to help them resolve the issue, often leading to a breakdown in the relationship or litigation.
- DIY Screening Errors: Independent intended parents may lack the expertise to thoroughly vet a surrogate’s medical history or psychological readiness, which can lead to heartbreaking medical complications or match failures later in the journey.
Building a Foundation of Trust and Legal Security in Maryland
Your surrogacy journey is too important to leave any detail to chance. In Maryland, because parentage is established through specific court precedents rather than a simple statute, a professionally drafted contract is your most critical safeguard.
It is the bridge between your dream of a family and the legal reality of enforceable parental rights. Relying on an informal, verbal agreement offers no protection and can lead to devastating consequences for everyone involved.
Ready to build your family on a foundation of professional legal security? Speak with a Maryland surrogacy specialist today to learn how we provide the expert coordination you need for a safe and successful journey.