Maternity Contract based on the birth for someone else / Materinstvo na osnovu ugovora o rađanju za drugog

Abstract

The Draft of the Serbian Civil Code provides for a new contract for the birth for another person, on the basis of which the parental relationship is established. This contract obligates the surrogate mother to carry and give birth to a child and deliver it to the married couple or companions (the intended parents), after impregnation by seeding cells of one or both of the intended parents. The intended parents are required to take the child and establish the parental relationship with the child.
The contract can be signed by a woman who lives with a surrogate mother (particularly justified by the reasons and determined on by the court in a contentious procedure - Article 63 of the preliminary draft), when it is necessary to use the seeding cells of the intended mother.
The contract on the birth for another person is not in the interest of the child. In the countries where it has been adopted, it represents a means of exploitation of the poorest women and it is unnatural. In the Draft, the contract is regulated mainly according to the general legal standards, whereas the autonomy of the parties involved regulates the rights and obligations (such as the waiver of surrogate mother to the status of mother, the moment of acquisition of parental rights of the intended parents, the handover of the child, reimbursement of reasonable costs, etc).