I had someone ask me a question last week that I had never before considered. This person was going to be a surrogate father (sperm donor) for a friend, and wanted to know what they could do to make sure they would not be responsible for the child, either legally or financially.
Doing some research, I discovered that several states have laws on the books to cover this sort of situation. Generally those laws provide that a sperm or egg donor have none of the parental rights and responsibilities that usually accompany being a parent. Mississippi, however, is not one of those states.
Sometimes, the facility that performs the involved fertility clinic has forms where both parties state they understand there will be no legal parental relationship established. Those forms would be good to show the parties’ intent at the time, but I doubt they would be binding in court as a termination of parental rights.
In talking to another Mississippi lawyer who has had this situation come up in his practice, he told me that they went to the court after the child was born and formally had the parental rights terminated. In my opinion, this should be preceded with some sort of contract that would obligate all involved to agree to the termination of rights. Like I said, this would probably not be binding, but it would go to show intent, and that should go a long way in any legal action if one party later decides they don’t want parental rights terminated.
This is just another example of why people should not try to handle legal matters on their own. A lawyer, even if they have not had this question before them before, knows where to find the answer, and knows what to do to cover all the bases. The savings of a few hundred dollars by “doing it yourself” (no pun intended) could cost you thousands later on.
If you are contemplating being a surrogate father or mother and want to protect yourself legally, you can contact Tim Evans, whether it is by email, or by phone at 601-583-1500.
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