Building Families Legally: Exploring the Intersection of Fertility and Florida Law

Florida Fertility Legal Services understands the challenges faced by parents who struggle with infertility. In fact, the firm has provided a much-needed helping hand to clients whose primary goals are to build families legally in the state.

One of Florida Fertility Legal Services’ areas of concentration is helping families through third-party assisted reproduction. That includes gestational surrogacy and taking measures to safeguard every single treatment, donation agreements and ensuring protection for egg and/or sperm donors and, thirdly, giving in-depth advice and services in cases of international surrogacy.

“To be clear, not a single one of my fertility law clients has ever had the need to defend their surrogacy and/or donation agreement in court,” Florida Fertility Legal Services’ Gerardo Rodriguez-Albizu says. “Were I to need an attorney, I would choose an attorney who knows the courtroom; an experienced attorney who would not have to refer the matter to a colleague because they themselves did not feel they were capable of or competent enough to represent their client’s rights under a surrogacy or donation agreement. That is what I believe differentiates me and our firm from the majority of fertility law practitioners in Florida.”

That said, the purpose of this blog is to explain important legal considerations for families created through fertility treatments in Florida.

Fertility treatments in Florida

In vitro fertilization, or IVF, takes place when eggs are gathered from the mother, fertilized with sperm from the father and placed in the uterus of a gestational surrogate who carries the embryo to birth.

“Surrogacy helps those who are unable to have children become parents,” according to Mom News Daily. “It is a process that requires both medical and legal expertise. Surrogacy is the route that provides the child they desire. Surrogacy process allows couples and individuals from different backgrounds, ages and also sexual orientations to build their families. Surrogacy has been around since the 1980s. Now days, advances in medicine, law, and public awareness have allowed IVF and surrogacy to become a routine option for many infertile couples.”

Surrogacy can be accomplished in two different ways – gestationally as described above or traditionally.

“A traditional surrogate is the baby’s biological mother since the child was conceived with her egg combined with the intended father’s or donor’s sperm,” according to Mom News Daily. “The child is thereby genetically related to both the surrogate mother, who provides the egg and the intended father.”

Both types of IVF are allowed in Florida. Perhaps that is why the state ranks among the top 10 with the most births via assisted reproductive technology, or ART. The others are California, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.  However, because under Florida law a traditional surrogate (i.e., a surrogate mother who is genetically related to the child) can rescind her termination of parental rights up to 48 hours post-birth, traditional surrogacy is strongly disfavored and not recommended.

Legal considerations for fertility treatment

Among the pre-treatment topics that should be explored are:

• Legal contracts such as sperm donation, egg donation, embryo donation, and surrogacy agreements
• Vetting an attorney who will professionally draft and/or review those contracts

Among the post-treatment topics that should be explored are:

• Establishing parentage and the rights and responsibilities of the intended parents
• Birth certificates
• Adoption as it might be necessary in certain surrogacy cases
• Estate planning for families created through assisted reproduction

Benefits of working with an attorney

The benefits of working with an attorney during the fertility process cannot be overstated. An attorney can cut through the overly technical legal jargon contained in Florida fertility laws and use clear and concise language to explain it in a way clients will understand. An attorney also can provide legal security for all parties involved, the avoidance of legal disputes going forward and peace of mind for the intended parents.

Rodriguez-Albizu, who with his wife suffered through infertility for four years, explains how Florida Fertility Legal Services is there to assist.

“I can provide you with a litany of all my achievements representing clients, try to dazzle you with my qualifications and prior training (where I studied, the honors I graduated with, the internships I did while in law school, the firms I worked at previously),” he says. “But in reality, what does any of that mean to you? In the end, I confess it probably means little to you. Fertility law is unique, unlike any other area of law I have studied or practiced. Yes, you want an attorney that has the “right” credentials. But in the end, you want someone who understands you – what you’re going through and the journey you’ve embarked on. I had the big firm job. I represented Fortune 500 companies, banks, real estate developers, businesses of all shapes and sizes. But I left my big firm job in large part because I could not do what my heart truly desired to do with my skills and training – help others who like myself wanted to start their families but could not do so “traditionally.”

In conclusion

As with the benefits of working with an attorney during the fertility process, the importance of legal considerations for fertility treatment cannot be overstated. So reach out to Florida Fertility Legal Services by calling 561-933-5380 or 772-227-1569 or via the contact form.