Transnational Commercial Surrogacy: Contracts, Conflicts, and the Prospects of International Legal Regulation

With the emergence of assisted reproductive technologies, particularly in vitro fertilization, gestational surrogacy in which an woman can be hired to gestate the child of commissioning parents has grown into a multimillion dollar industry. While many countries prohibit surrogacy, others permit and some even allow women to charge for the service of gestation on a commercial basis. This article addresses the regulation of transnational surrogacy and the related legal conflicts that arise in cross-border agreements particularly in commercial contracts It starts with a brief exploration of the surrogacy industry and growth. It then goes on to describe and analyze some of the legal frameworks that affect surrogacy contracts. The article proceeds to discuss some of the most prominent cross-border controversies to highlight that these conflicts tend to arise from a lack of international or transnational regulation on parentage and citizenship. Finally, the article explores the proposals for international regulation and the prospects of solving some of the more difficult legal problems that have arisen from transnational surrogacy.https://ecollections.law.fiu.edu/faculty_books/1223/thumbnail.jp