Matching Intended Parents to Surrogates and Egg Donors
Application Process for Intended Parents
Arkansas Law and Birth Certificates
Non-Arkansas or Non-U.S. Residents
Could the Surrogate Keep Our Child
We Already Have a Surrogate

Q: How will the agency match us with a surrogate or egg donor?

A: All potential surrogates and egg donors complete a profile and application (more than 45 pages) providing comprehensive personal information. The candidates must complete other important screening steps. Monica Mason, the founder of Surrogacy Solutions talks one on one with each candidate.

Surrogacy Solutions staff and intended parents discuss:

• The reasons for requiring the agency’s services
• What you are looking for in a surrogate or donor
• Your views about specific aspects of the surrogacy or egg donation process
• Your personality
• The level of involvement you want with your surrogate
• Your privacy concerns

We strive to match you with a surrogate whose personal views and personality appear most closely complimentary of your own, in addition to meeting your specified criteria. We will ordinarily provide you with candidates to consider immediately after you decide to work with us.

Intended parents receive a copy of the profile and photographs of the candidate and her children. Identifying information is not revealed initially. After your selection of a surrogate, the surrogate’s last name will be provided. The final step is a meeting between the surrogate and intended parents providing an opportunity for either party to cancel the contract. Intended parents do not usually meet their egg donor or receive her last name.

Q: Do we have to complete any kind of application process?

A: Yes, you provide Surrogacy Solutions with personal and health information about yourselves. You provide a color copy of your driver’s licenses, consent to a child abuse registry inquiry and criminal background check. If married, you will provide a copy of your marriage license. You must complete one or more in person or telephone interviews with agency personnel as the final step in receiving the agreement of the agency to assist you. Intended fathers whose sperm will be utilized to create their child or whose wife will carry their pregnancy must take an HIV, CMV, and Hepatitis B and C blood tests, undergo STD screens and a semen analysis, and will provide a health history to the agency and the treating physician. Intended mothers who will carry their pregnancy and only seek an egg donor will complete the same blood tests, as well as additional tests required by the treating physician. Intended mothers seeking a surrogate must take HIV, CMV, and Hepatitis B and C blood tests, and may expect to provide a health history to the treating physician for a gestational surrogacy. In some instances, treating physicians will require additional testing of intended parents, such as a chest x-ray or EKG. Prior to signing a contract for surrogacy, you must provide the agency with a copy of your wills designating the name and address of the person appointed to take custody of and provide care for your child in the event of your death before or after the birth of your child, and you must provide evidence of insurance on the life of each of you in the amount of at least $100,000 for the exclusive benefit of the child to be born through surrogacy (or naming a trust for the benefit of the child).

Q: Why would we want to use Arkansas law in our surrogacy arrangement?

A: The surrogacy law in Arkansas is among the most favorable in the United States. Arkansas law states that a child born to a surrogate is the child of the intended father and his wife, if he is married. An unmarried intended mother using anonymous donor sperm is also declared to be the mother of her child born to an artificial insemination surrogate. The same law has a simple procedure for placing the intended parent’s names on the child’s birth certificate, so the parents do not have to “adopt” their own child. This favorable law on surrogacy is a statutory law enacted by the Arkansas Legislature rather than case law created by judges.

Q: Can Surrogacy Solutions help us if we do not live in Arkansas?

A: Yes. Most of our clients do not live in Arkansas, and several of our surrogates and egg donors do not live in Arkansas. You are not required to live in Arkansas to form your contract under and take advantage of Arkansas law on surrogacy.

Q: What if the surrogate changes her mind after she is pregnant with our child?

A: In all surrogacy arrangements through Surrogacy Solutions, the contract provides that Arkansas is the place the parties select for the laws to govern, interpret, and enforce the contract. Arkansas state law says that a child born to a surrogate mother is the child of:

• The biological father and his wife, if he is married,
• The intended father only, if he is not married, or
• The intended mother when anonymous donor sperm is used.

Thus, using Arkansas law places the intended parents in the most favorable position possible in a surrogacy arrangement, and does not allow the surrogate to change her mind after she is pregnant, like she could in an adoption proceeding or certain other states in the country permitting surrogates to cancel a contract after they become pregnant. Arkansas favors creation of the family with the intended parents.

Q: We have been surfing the free classified ad Web sites and believe we have found a surrogate mother we want to work with. Do we still need Surrogacy Solutions?

A: Yes, you do. Finding your surrogate is a very big and important step, the first step. After that, you would benefit greatly from the help of Surrogacy Solutions in tying down the numerous details that should go into the contract with your surrogate. In part, those details will be: negotiating for a written contract with your surrogate; the coordination of medical treatment before and during pregnancy, and for delivery; understanding and working through the many options available to you in a third party reproduction relationship; and settling financial and business details so you can concentrate on your relationship with your surrogate in creating your family. You will benefit from our experience with many different couples. We help you understand the many options you should explore with your surrogate. We help provide you and the surrogate peace of mind knowing your contract is in place and is enforceable. We will assist you and your surrogate during the transition after the birth of your child. At Surrogacy Solutions there is a difference in management and coordination of each individual case.