Do Egg Donors Have Parental Rights?

When families are considering assisted reproduction, one common question that arises is whether egg donors get parental rights. Unfortunately, this is a complicated question and there’s no hard and fast answer. Today, we’re going to explore the issues involving legal parental rights when an egg donor is involved, such as why you might continue contact after the donation process, whether an egg donor can have parental rights, the importance of your contract with your donor, and how to navigate contract disputes.

Situations When You Might Continue Contact With Your Egg Donor

In most situations, egg donation arrangements are anonymous. The intended parents who receive the eggs never know the legal name of their donor. Conversely, the donor also doesn’t know who uses her eggs. The donor and recipient are matched by agencies in most of these situations. Each party learns about the other through a profile which can include information such as physical traits, education level, and appearance.

In these anonymous situations, why would intended parents have contact with their donor after birth? There are a few potential reasons, but health concerns are the main reason. If your beautiful baby develops a health issue during their life, you may want to reach out to the donor for insight. This is a two-way street. Your donor can help you learn more about your child’s medical history, but your child’s diagnosis may also guide your donor to seek her own treatment.

Another common reason to contact your egg donor is to honor your child’s wishes. Some families tell their children that they came into the world with the help of a donor. Children in this situation may want to meet the donor who provided some of their genetic material. If you’re hoping to have this level of honesty, it’s important to keep communication open.

Can An Egg Donor Have Parental Rights?

Several issues impact whether an egg donor has the right to claim a parental position. These situations are complicated, and no one answer fits every arrangement. The first consideration is whether the donation was anonymous or known. Most egg donations have traditionally been anonymous, but the assisted reproduction world is seeing an increase in the number of open donations.

Where you live can impact your legal process. Some states are very friendly to the idea of egg donation. Intended parents in these states are granted absolute legal rights. Other states, however, tend to favor the donors despite any pre-existing arrangement. We’ve seen cases where the court gave parental rights to the egg donor even with a contract signed before the donation. Be careful to understand the laws in your state as these will impact your situation.

The Importance Of Your Egg Donation Contract

Your contract with your egg donor determines the intent of the involved parties, so it is the biggest factor in whether she can claim parental rights. Typical child custody cases are concerned with the best interest of the child. However, when you’re dealing with donation and assisted reproduction matters, the intent of the parties as shown through their egg donation contract is also important.

Here are some considerations that need to be included in any egg donation contract.

• Intention of the donation
• Medical reason for turning to donation
• Clear statement of the donor’s intent to relinquish all her rights and responsibilities to the eggs and any subsequent embryos

Work with an attorney to make sure your contract is very clear on all of these items. A contract lays the framework for the entire egg donation process. Your donor should state her intent to donate eggs to your family, as well as acknowledge that it’s in the best interest of the child that the intended parents be deemed the legal parents. 

You may have come across egg donations where there wasn’t an obvious contract. Some egg donors can complete the entire process without seeing anything they realized was a contract. However, remember that contracts are a vital part of establishing legal parenthood. Every reputable egg donation agency or egg bank will offer a contract. It may have been called a terms of service document or a consent form, but a legal agreement was likely involved.

Even if you’re working with an egg bank that offers a consent form, we still advise you to take that contract to a legal professional. An attorney with experience in assisted reproduction can help you understand the agreements you’re making. They can also verify that the donor is completely giving up her legal rights to the eggs.

Navigating Egg Donation Disputes

Your egg donation contract is so important because it’s what the courts will turn to in the event of a dispute between parties. A judge will want to know if there was an agreement between parties and if so, what that agreement states. If everyone’s intent is clear in the contract, that’s a powerful tool for settling future disagreements.

It’s important to have a strong contract, but in our professional experience, we’ve found that most donors simply don’t want parental rights over your child. Your donor is giving her eggs, but that’s only half of the picture. Donors don’t have any say in selecting the sperm that’s used to create an embryo. In most cases, donors aren’t interested in claiming custody of a child when they didn’t play a part in deciding the other half of its genetic makeup. 

Your fertility clinic will be one of your strongest advocates in sticking to a contract. Most reputable clinics won’t retrieve eggs or go on to create embryos without a contract in place. Your legal team can start the process with a legal clearance letter, which gives the clinic written permission to start the medical proceedings. Check with your clinic about their consent forms and signatory process to see exactly what documents are required. You should also confirm that your agreement with the fertility clinic matches and enhances your contract with your donor.

Learn More

If you’re exploring egg donation, you may also be curious about the surrogacy process. Learn more about surrogacy with our free tool, The Surrogacy Roadmap. Click here to download this tool, which will walk you through the entire surrogacy process from start to finish. Make sure to click this link for your free resources. We’ll be with you from dream to delivery.