UPA (2017): An Improvement?Except Where Genetic Surrogacy Is Concerned

• Author: Richard B. Vaughn
• Position: Founder of the Los Angeles-based law firm International Fertility Law Group (IFLG); immediate past chair of the ABA Family Law Section Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology, which was the primary sponsor of the recently adopted 2019 ABA Model Act Governing Assisted Reproduction.
• Pages: 471-477

471

UPA (2017): An Improvement—

Except Where Genetic Surrogacy

Is Concerned

RICHARD B. VAUGHN*

Introduction

Arguably, no constituency has a greater stake in the status of state

parentage laws than the families created by assisted reproductive

technology. The Uniform Parentage Act of 2017 (“UPA” or “Act”)

offers state lawmakers a greatly improved model that incorporates many

best practices evolved by the assisted reproductive technology (ART)

profession over the past three decades. Unfortunately, the Act singles out

one type of surrogacy—genetic or “traditional” surrogacy—with special

rules that threaten to undo decades of progress for establishing parental

authority of intended parents.

           

state legislatures struggling to adapt to the many challenges posed by

rapidly advancing technology and shifting social mores around assisted

reproduction. From recognition of the intended father, rather than the

sperm donor, as legal parent in 1973 to offering (optional) guidelines

for surrogacy agreements and establishing parentage in surrogacy cases

in 2002, the UPA has steadily expanded its scope to encompass modern

family structures, including families created through ART.

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recognition of the constitutional

marriage rights of same-sex couples in the United States in June 2015,

    

immediate past chair of the ABA Family Law Section Committee on Assisted Reproductive

Technology, which was the primary sponsor of the recently adopted 2019 ABA Model Act

Governing Assisted Reproduction.

Published in Family Law Quarterly, Volume 52, Number 3, Fall 2018. © 2019 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof

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