§ 581-406 Parentage under compliant surrogacy agreement

When a child is born through a surrogacy arrangement that follows New York's legal requirements, the intended parents automatically become the child's legal parents as soon as the child is born. This happens by law, without needing any extra court action.

At the same time, the surrogate and her spouse (if she has one) are not considered the child's legal parents. They have no legal parental rights or responsibilities toward the child, even though the surrogate carried and gave birth to the baby.

This rule protects everyone involved by making the legal parentage clear from the moment the child is born, as long as the surrogacy agreement met the state's requirements before the process began.