Can an intended parent remain completely anonymous under California law?
Yes. While parentage orders require identifying information for court records and birth certificates, agencies and legal representatives can structure initial matching contracts and matching profiles to obscure the client's actual wealth, public standing, and total number of commissioned offspring from the surrogate.
Why do foreign billionaires use American surrogates instead of domestic options?
Commercial surrogacy is banned or strictly restricted in many countries, including China. The US provides highly developed medical technology, enforceable pre-birth legal parentage orders, and automatic US citizenship for the newborn child under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Can a surrogate terminate or void the contract if she discovers the father lied about his identity?
Voiding a gestational carrier contract is legally precarious. Once pregnancy is achieved, the surrogate cannot simply choose to keep the child, as she shares no genetic link with the fetus and pre-birth orders assign legal parenthood to the biological father. She may, however, pursue civil claims against the agency for fraudulent inducement if material facts were deliberately falsified during matching.
