What makes a good surrogate mother? The fact is that anyone who is willing and able to perform this service for you could be a good candidate.
However, motherhood and pregnancy are both challenging legal situations. Even if you trust someone implicitly, you might want to have a higher level of assurance — higher than just a promise, that is — that your child will be yours.
Writing a surrogacy contract
You might start with writing a surrogate mother contract. FindLaw has a checklist for surrogacy agreements that covers most of the common necessities.
Because you want these contracts to be legal agreements, you would want them to be effective in the relevant jurisdiction for the relevant amount of time. North Carolina law has some differences when compared to other states, for example.
Preparing your agreement
One of the nice things about these types of documents is that, after you understand your situation, you could start writing before you find someone to bear your child. In fact, this is a key factor in the growth of the burgeoning surrogate business: Many surrogacy services prepare boilerplate contracts that they might later adapt to particular situations.
Once you have a strong framework, you could work with a small group of candidates to develop agreements that take all opinions and considerations into account. Anything that the law can enforce, your contract may stipulate.
Growing your family
It might seem cynical or detached to grow your family with a legal contract. However, many of the institutions that you think of as personal are already legal.
Relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children: These all have rules that govern them. Customized contracts simply help you modify and add to those rules pursuant to your unique family situation.
