Whose name is on the birth certificate of a child born from a surrogate?

Learn the answer to this week's user-submitted question about surrogacy in this week's installment of Ask a Surrogacy Expert! Have a question about surrogacy that you'd like answered? Submit it at brightfuturesfamilies.com/ask

Hey everyone, it's Jennifer White, CEO of Bright Futures Families Surrogacy, with this week's question, which is: Whose name goes on the birth certificate?

And that's a great question and I will absolutely defer to attorneys to answer this best. But in general, in any state where there is a pre birth order parentage process, then the intended parent's name is going to go directly on the birth certificate as long as that order has been obtained before birth, etc. There are situations where there are post birth parentage order states at which point the gestational carrier's name would go on the birth certificate first and then the birth certificate would be amended to add the intended parents names later. Our agency only operates in pre birth parentage order states, so I'm not as familiar with that process. But most states operate that way. So generally, you know, most of the time intended parents names go directly on that birth certificate from the moment of birth. Hope that helps.