Mission Viejo Surrogacy Lawyer

Mission Viejo Surrogacy Attorney

Growing your family by welcoming a new child can be an incredible experience, but not every family in California is able to have biological children of their own. Couples struggling with infertility and same-sex couples can take advantage of surrogacy to have children through a proxy surrogate mother, but this is a highly regulated process. If you are considering surrogacy, it is vital to know the value of working with an experienced Mission Viejo surrogacy attorney.

Experienced Legal Counsel in Mission Viejo, CA, for Surrogacy Cases

Attorney Melissa Cianci is a certified family law specialist with decades of professional experience in family law. The team at Cianci Law, PC has successfully represented many past clients in a wide range of family law cases, including those involving surrogacy. We know the questions you are likely to have and the challenges you are likely to encounter in the surrogacy process, and want to help you approach this situation with confidence and peace of mind.

Your Mission Viejo surrogacy attorney can be an invaluable asset for crafting a legally enforceable surrogacy agreement and ensuring the process meets all administrative and procedural requirements. Surrogacy is a tremendously complex, time-consuming, and ultimately expensive process, but the right attorney on your side can help you accomplish your goals and reach your desired outcome more easily than you could manage alone.

Understanding the Surrogacy Laws

Surrogacy is legal in the state, but any intended parents who wish to explore the process must follow very strict regulations. Additionally, surrogate mothers are also required to meet specific criteria, and there are many formalities that must be fully addressed before any steps toward fertility may be taken. It’s a common misconception that surrogacy can be navigated without legal counsel, especially for those who have chosen close relatives or friends of their families to act as their surrogate mothers. However, California’s Family Code requires anyone exploring surrogacy to be represented by legal counsel, and this applies to both surrogate mothers and intended parents.

A surrogacy agreement must be drafted and signed by all parties involved in the process before any medical steps may be taken toward fertilization. A Mission Viejo surrogacy attorney is an invaluable asset for this process and can provide comprehensive legal counsel through every stage of a surrogacy case. While this process may be challenging, multifaceted, and ultimately very difficult, there are many benefits to exploring surrogacy including:

• The opportunity to overcome infertility issues and grow your family.
• Comprehensive legal protection and parental rights established at the very beginning of a surrogate pregnancy. This will eliminate any potential for disputes to arise regarding parental rights and responsibilities. The surrogate mother must be prepared to surrender the child to the intended parents and the intended parents must be prepared to fully assume responsibility for the child at the end of the pregnancy.
• The legal right to attend all prenatal medical appointments. As intended parents you will have the right to be fully informed about all medical developments during the surrogate pregnancy.
• No legal surprises due to the fact that surrogacy is highly regulated and all pertinent documents and agreements undergo extensive legal review before the surrogate pregnancy begins.
• A high chance of having a healthy baby.

If you are unsure about surrogacy or wish to explore the process, a Mission Viejo surrogacy attorney is the ideal resource to consult. The team at Cianci Law, PC is ready to provide direction and support through each step of the surrogacy process, from development of the initial agreement to resolving any unforeseen issues that might arise throughout the surrogate pregnancy.

Benefits of Working With a Mission Viejo Surrogacy Attorney

Legal counsel is required for a surrogacy agreement under the California Family Code, and choosing the right Mission Viejo surrogacy attorney to represent you can make a tremendous positive impact on your experience with this life-changing process. The team at Cianci Law, PC is ready to help you fully understand all the procedural requirements for completing surrogacy. We can help draft your surrogacy agreement and navigate all preliminary reviews that must be completed before fertility treatments can begin.

Any surrogacy case is likely to involve extensive paperwork and all parties involved in the process will need to be represented by counsel. Depending on how you are approaching surrogacy, your case may involve the intended parents, the surrogate mother, and donors of genetic material. The process of developing your surrogacy agreement must not only make every party’s rights and responsibilities perfectly clear but also establish parental rights for the intended parents before fertility treatments begin. Your attorney can ensure that all the paperwork your case requires is legally enforceable and that you are fully prepared to address any complications that might unexpectedly arise.

Creating Your Surrogacy Agreement

California law stipulates that a surrogacy agreement must be drafted and signed by all parties involved before medical steps may be taken toward fertilization. It’s also vital for all parties involved to meet the legal requirements for their roles in a surrogate pregnancy. The law requires that a surrogate mother meet specific criteria:

• The surrogate mother must be in good overall health. This includes being a nonsmoker with a healthy height-to-weight ratio and no congenital conditions that could be passed to the child.
• The surrogate mother must have completed at least one healthy pregnancy with gestation of 36 weeks or longer.
• The candidate for surrogacy must be willing to undergo psychological evaluation and agree to intramuscular and subcutaneous injections during medical procedures for the surrogate pregnancy.
• The candidate and their husband or partner must be willing to undergo extensive background checks.
• The surrogate mother may not be a recipient of federal or state financial support.
• Surrogate mothers must be between the ages of 22 and 40.

The intended parents will also need to be reviewed for eligibility. This typically entails a process similar to what intended parents would face in adoption, such as a home study to ensure the intended parents can provide a clean and safe environment for the baby. During the surrogacy agreement drafting process, your Mission Viejo surrogacy attorney can not only ensure that all parties involved meet their eligibility requirements but also draft the agreement to ensure both the surrogate mother’s rights and the rights of the intended parents are fully protected.

It is important to remember that one of the most crucial components of a surrogacy agreement in the state is that it establishes the intended parents’ parental rights before fertilization. Your Mission Viejo surrogacy attorney can ensure that you have the full legal confidence to move forward with the process and help you fulfill all procedural requirements of your case.

The surrogacy agreement will also include terms and conditions for the surrogate mother’s compensation. The majority of surrogate mothers in the state are paid for the service they provide, typically around $50,000 plus full coverage of all medical expenses before and during pregnancy. The intended parents must be prepared to pay the surrogate mother’s fee, handle the cost of all fertility treatments, prenatal care, and childbirth procedures.

Developing a legally enforceable surrogacy agreement is the greatest challenge you will face in your surrogacy case. When you have a Mission Viejo surrogacy attorney representing you, it will be easier to complete this process in a timely manner, and once the agreement has been signed, the next step is to begin fertilization treatment and prepare for the surrogate pregnancy.

What to Expect From Your Mission Viejo Surrogacy Attorney

When most people who consider surrogacy for growing their family imagine the process they will naturally focus on the anticipation and excitement of the final result, but the reality is that surrogacy is an incredibly complex process that requires the assistance of a seasoned attorney. When you choose Cianci Law, PC to represent you in your surrogacy case, we can take time to learn as much as we can about your family, so we fully understand your hopes, goals, and expectations for the process. We can coordinate with the legal representatives of the other parties involved in the surrogate pregnancy, including the surrogate mother and egg and/or sperm donors.

Surrogacy can inherently raise difficult questions that may pertain to child custody, child support, and parental rights, and the purpose of the surrogacy agreement is to clearly outline these details for all parties involved. When you have an experienced Mission Viejo surrogacy attorney representing you, it will be easier to firmly establish the boundaries of your agreement so you can approach the next steps of the process with confidence and peace of mind.

Even if everything seems to be above board at the outset of your case, there is always potential for unforeseen circumstances to interfere with a surrogate pregnancy, and it is possible for disputes to arise. When you have a trusted attorney representing you, you are better prepared to address any such problems quickly and effectively. The Cianci Law, PC team is ready to help navigate your surrogacy case with confidence, so contact us today and schedule your consultation with a Mission Viejo surrogacy attorney you can trust.