Florida Statute 742.15 - Full Text and Legal Analysis

The 2025 Florida Statutes

Title XLIII
DOMESTIC RELATIONS

Chapter 742
DETERMINATION OF PARENTAGE

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742.15 Gestational surrogacy contract.—

(1) Prior to engaging in gestational surrogacy, a binding and enforceable gestational surrogacy contract shall be made between the commissioning couple and the gestational surrogate. A contract for gestational surrogacy shall not be binding and enforceable unless the gestational surrogate is 18 years of age or older and the commissioning couple are legally married and are both 18 years of age or older.

(2) The commissioning couple shall enter into a contract with a gestational surrogate only when, within reasonable medical certainty as determined by a physician licensed under chapter 458 or chapter 459:

(a) The commissioning mother cannot physically gestate a pregnancy to term;

(b) The gestation will cause a risk to the physical health of the commissioning mother; or

(3) A gestational surrogacy contract must include the following provisions:

(a) The commissioning couple agrees that the gestational surrogate shall be the sole source of consent with respect to clinical intervention and management of the pregnancy.

(b) The gestational surrogate agrees to submit to reasonable medical evaluation and treatment and to adhere to reasonable medical instructions about her prenatal health.

(c) Except as provided in paragraph (e), the gestational surrogate agrees to relinquish any parental rights upon the child’s birth and to proceed with the judicial proceedings prescribed under s. 742.16.

(d) Except as provided in paragraph (e), the commissioning couple agrees to accept custody of and to assume full parental rights and responsibilities for the child immediately upon the child’s birth, regardless of any impairment of the child.

(e) The gestational surrogate agrees to assume parental rights and responsibilities for the child born to her if it is determined that neither member of the commissioning couple is the genetic parent of the child.

(4) As part of the contract, the commissioning couple may agree to pay only reasonable living, legal, medical, psychological, and psychiatric expenses of the gestational surrogate that are directly related to prenatal, intrapartal, and postpartal periods.

History.—s. 2, ch. 93-237.

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Amendments to 742.15

Annotations, Discussions, Cases:

Cases Citing Statute 742.15

Total Results: 5 | Sort by: Relevance | Newest First

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Lowe v. Broward Cnty., 766 So. 2d 1199 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000).

Cited 25 times | Published | Florida 4th District Court of Appeal | 2000 Fla. App. LEXIS 11893, 2000 WL 1345513

...§ 689.11); the right to rehabilitative or permanent alimony in a proceeding for the dissolution of marriage (Fla.Stat. §§ 61.071, 61.08); the right to an elective share in the estate of a deceased spouse (Fla.Stat. § 732.102); the right to enter into a gestational surrogacy agreement (Fla.Stat. § 742.15(1)); distribution rights in *1206 homestead property (Fla....

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D.M.T. v. T.M.H., 129 So. 3d 320 (Fla. 2013).

Cited 13 times | Published | Supreme Court of Florida | 38 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 812, 2013 WL 5942278, 2013 Fla. LEXIS 2422

...Const, (defining marriage as “the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife” and stating that “no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized”). By contrast, in the next statutory provisions, sections 742.15-16, Florida Statutes, which relate to gestational surrogacy, the Legislature has specifically provided that the “commissioning couple” must be “legally married” in order to claim protection under the statutes. See § 742.15(1), Fla....

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T.M.H. v. D.M.T., 79 So. 3d 787 (Fla. 5th DCA 2011).

Cited 7 times | Published | Florida 5th District Court of Appeal

...woman contributes the egg that is implanted in another woman, "intent should be the determinative factor” if rules are in place to prevent overreaching in surrogacy agreements. Id. at 497. We find it very interesting that the author later cites to section 742.15, Florida Statutes, which addresses surrogacy contracts, as such a rule, thus placing Florida squarely in the category of jurisdictions that should decide the issue of motherhood based on the intent of the parties rather than on a presumption of gestational parenthood....

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Tmh v. Dmt, 79 So. 3d 787 (Fla. 5th DCA 2011).

Cited 2 times | Published | Florida 5th District Court of Appeal | 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 20502, 2011 WL 6437247

...e woman contributes the egg that is implanted in another woman, "intent should be the determinative factor" if rules are in place to prevent overreaching in surrogacy agreements. Id. at 497. We find it very interesting that the author later cites to section 742.15, Florida Statutes, which addresses surrogacy contracts, as such a rule, thus placing Florida squarely in the category of jurisdictions that should decide the issue of motherhood based on the intent of the parties rather than on a presumption of gestational parenthood....

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Angel Givoanni Rivera & Ashley Nicole Isabel Brito v. Jennifer Salas (Fla. 2d DCA 2024).

Published | Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal

...ed eggs or preembryos is the child of the husband and wife); § 742.12 (use of scientific testing to determine paternity); § 742.13 (definitions); § 742.14 (relinquishment of maternal or paternal rights by the donor of sperm, eggs, or preembryos); § 742.15 (contract required for surrogacy); § 742.16 (petitions for affirmation of parental status); and 742.17 (disposition of eggs, sperm, and preembryos). The instant case is primarily concerned with section 742.14,1 which provides, in pert...

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