Surrogacy in Florida: What Statute 742.15 Actually Requires

Last reviewed September 2026. General education, not legal advice — confirm with a licensed Florida reproductive attorney.

Florida is one of the longer-standing surrogacy-friendly states, with a statute on the books well before many others. It's also one of the more restrictive in terms of who can use it.

What Florida Statute 742.15 Requires

• The gestational surrogate must be 18 or older.
• The intended parents must be a legally married couple — the statute calls them the "commissioning couple" — and both must be 18 or older.
• Medical necessity must be established: that the commissioning mother cannot gestate a pregnancy, or that pregnancy would pose a risk to her health or to the fetus.
• The surrogate is the sole source of consent for clinical management of the pregnancy. This is a genuinely surrogate-protective provision — her medical decisions during the pregnancy are hers.
• The surrogate agrees to relinquish parental rights, with a specific exception where neither commissioning parent is a genetic parent of the child.

Source: Fla. Stat. § 742.15.

What That Means in Practice

If you're a married couple who meets the medical-necessity standard, Florida gives you a clear statutory path with decades of practice behind it. If you're single, unmarried, or a same-sex couple, the binding-contract provisions of 742.15 as written don't fit your situation, and you'll need a Florida attorney to talk you through what alternatives exist and what their limits are.

The genetic-connection exception is also worth flagging early: where neither intended parent is genetically related to the child — for example a journey using both donor egg and donor sperm — the analysis changes. Raise it with counsel at the start, not after an embryo has been created.

The Provision Surrogates Should Know

That clause making the surrogate the sole source of consent for clinical management is one of the stronger surrogate protections in any state statute. It means the intended parents don't get to direct your medical care during the pregnancy. If an agency ever implies otherwise, that's a serious red flag — and the sort of thing our post on what your contract actually covers exists to demystify.

Florida vs. a No-Restrictions State

The practical difference is who's eligible. California's framework carries no marital-status, orientation or medical-necessity requirement, which is why many families whose circumstances don't fit their own state's statute run their journey with a surrogate elsewhere. Since the controlling law is generally where the surrogate lives and gives birth, that's a well-established route rather than a workaround. Compare in our state-by-state map.

Wherever you are, we're happy to give you a straight answer about your options — info@onfertilityground.com or 510-808-6948.

General education, not legal advice. Reflects Fla. Stat. § 742.15 as of September 2026. Every journey requires independent counsel for both parties and a licensed Florida reproductive attorney for any Florida-based agreement.