Maine Comment

Maine's revision has eliminated the requirement of a home study to minimize complexity, expense and delay. Surrogacy is different from adoption. In adoption, a genetic mother places her child into the adoptive process after the child is born. In surrogacy, the intended parent or parents may be the genetic parent or parents, but whether they are or not, a child is procreated because a medical procedure was initiated and consented to by the intended parent or parents. The parent or parents who planned to create and raise a child, taking extensive and complex steps to do so, are the legal parents of the child whether or not there is a genetic tie. The child would not have been born but for the efforts of the intended parent or parents. Since the issues involved in surrogacy are so different from those involved in adoption, it does not make sense to superimpose the home study required by adoptions onto the surrogacy situation.

The word "stated" has replaced "reasonable" to eliminate the discretion that would be invoked if courts were charged with reviewing the reasonableness of the consideration. It is in the best interest of the child that all consideration be stated, or set forth, in the agreement, so that the parties are not involved in lengthy litigation over the amount of the consideration.

§1974.__Inspection of records

The proceedings, records and identities of the individual parties to a gestational agreement under this subchapter are subject to inspection under the standards of confidentiality applicable to adoptions as provided under other law of this State.

Comment

(This is section 804 of the UPA.)

The procedures involved in this article are exceptionally personal, thereby warranting protection from invasions of privacy. Adoption records provide a suitable model for these records.