Missouri Surrogacy Laws

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Missouri Surrogacy Laws

Missouri surrogacy agreements are permitted; however, Missouri follows the old Uniform Parentage Act. While Missouri statute allows for parentage petitions to be filed prior to birth, birth orders listing the intended parents as the legal parents of the child will only be granted by the court after the child is born (V.A.M.S. 210.826.).

There is one exception to this rule: when a woman is artificially inseminated, with the consent of her husband, by sperm that is not her husband’s, and the insemination is performed by a licensed physician. The husband can then be declared the legal father of the resulting child (V.A.M.S. 210.824.).  

For children born through the use of a traditional surrogate, a Missouri non-biological intended parent may be subject to adoption-like restrictions, such as a six-month waiting period and background checks, before being deemed by the court to be the legal parent of the child.  

With no Missouri laws prohibiting gestational surrogacy or traditional surrogacy, both types of surrogacy are practiced throughout Missouri cities like St. Louis, Kansas City, and Springfield.

Laws Concerning Parentage Orders in Missouri

Although Missouri courts recognize pre-birth agreements, parentage orders will only be granted after the birth of the child. See above (V.A.M.S. 210.826.). Courts will generally grant post-birth parentage orders to married opposite-sex couples; however, it is unclear whether they would grant those orders to a Missouri same-sex or unmarried couple.

Egg and Sperm Donor Law in Missouri

Under statute, a Missouri sperm donor who provides semen “… to a licensed physician for use in artificial insemination of a married woman other than the donor’s wife is treated in law as if he were not the natural father of a child thereby conceived,” (V.A.M.S. 210.824.).

In 2009, the court of appeals held that the statute is equally applicable to a Missouri egg donor (White v. White (Mo. Ct. App. 2009).).

Missouri Stepparent and Second-Parent Adoption Law

The law allows for a Missouri stepparent to adopt their spouse’s child. Consent from the child’s other legal parent is required unless the parental rights of that parent have already terminated or that parent, for a period of six months immediately prior to the filing of a petition, willfully abandoned or neglected the child (V.A.M.S. 453.040).

Fertility Clinics in Missouri

Connect with Baby Steps Surrogacy Center, Inc.

From Kansas City to Columbia to St. Louis and everywhere in between, the surrogacy professionals at Baby Steps Surrogacy Center, Inc. are dedicated to helping people like you navigate and understand Missouri’s surrogacy laws. To reach us, call 412-281-9906 or reach us through the contact buttons at the top of this page.