Florida Surrogacy Law
Florida is one of the more surrogacy-friendly states — but the path you qualify for, and how the surrogate's parental rights end, depend entirely on whether you are married and whether an intended parent is genetically related to the child.
Florida recognizes two distinct legal routes to building a family through surrogacy. They are not interchangeable: your eligibility for each is fixed by your marital status and the child's genetics, and each route extinguishes the surrogate's parental rights by a different mechanism and on a different timeline.
The two legal paths at a glance
Gestational Surrogacy
- Statute: §§ 742.15–742.16
- For: couples who are legally married
- Genetics: at least one intended parent must be genetically related to the child
- Surrogate: carries an embryo she is not genetically related to
- Rights transfer: expedited court affirmation after birth — no rescission window
Preplanned Adoption
- Statute: § 63.213
- For: single parents, unmarried couples
- Genetics: used for traditional surrogacy (surrogate is the genetic mother) and other cases outside § 742.15
- Surrogate: may be the child's genetic mother
- Rights transfer: consent after birth with a 48-hour rescission window
Path 1 — Gestational surrogacy (§§ 742.15–742.16)
This is the cleaner, faster route, but it has firm gatekeeping requirements. To use the gestational surrogacy statute, the intended parents must be a legally married couple, and at least one of them must be genetically related to the child. The surrogate carries an embryo created from the intended parents' and/or donors' genetic material and has no genetic relationship to the child she carries. § 742.15
The arrangement must be set out in a binding written contract signed before any treatment begins, addressing medical procedures, the surrogate's agreement to relinquish the child to the intended parents, and how expenses are handled.
After the birth, the intended parents file a Petition for Expedited Affirmation of Parental Status, generally within three days of the child's birth. The court confirms the intended parents as the legal parents — and there is no rescission period for the gestational surrogate to change her mind. § 742.16
Path 2 — Preplanned adoption (§ 63.213)
When the intended parent is single, the couple is not married, or the surrogate will be the child's genetic mother (traditional surrogacy), the gestational statute is unavailable and the arrangement proceeds under Florida's preplanned adoption framework. § 63.213
Because this path can involve the woman who is genetically the child's mother, the law gives the birth mother a 48-hour window after birth to rescind her consent. That waiting period is the single biggest legal distinction between the two paths, and it is why genetics and marital status drive everything.
What the contract must address
Whichever path applies, the written agreement is the spine of the arrangement and must cover, at minimum:
- The surrogate's agreement to carry the pregnancy and relinquish the child to the intended parents;
- The medical procedures and the parties' rights to make health decisions during the pregnancy;
- How pregnancy-related expenses and compensation are handled;
- What happens in the event of miscarriage, multiples, or medical complications; and
- The parties' obligations if a child is born with a disability or other unforeseen circumstances arise.
Why surrogacy is not a do-it-yourself document
This is the honest part. A surrogacy contract is one of the few documents where Florida practice effectively requires independent legal counsel for each side — the intended parents and the surrogate each need their own attorney so the agreement is enforceable and no one can later argue they were not properly advised. A fill-in-the-blank template cannot carry that weight, and we will not pretend otherwise.
As a non-attorney document-preparation service under Fla. Bar Rule 10-2.1, JusticeXpress Florida does not prepare surrogacy contracts or advise on which path fits your family. Where we can help is on the paperwork that comes after the attorney-handled phases — amended birth certificate requests, vital-records forms, and similar follow-through documents — and we can connect you with a Florida assisted-reproduction attorney to handle the contract and the parentage petition.