Surrogacy abroad

The Finnish authorities do not recommend people to turn to surrogacy arrangements abroad due to the many risks and uncertainties involved in such processes.

Surrogacy refers to an arrangement in which a woman carries and gives birth to a baby with the intention to give the child after birth to another person or couple (intended parents, IPs) who will raise the child. 

Surrogacy arrangements as an infertility treatment are prohibited in Finland. Medical examinations and treatments aiming at surrogacy arrangements are also prohibited in Finland, even if the arrangement itself would take place abroad.

Risks arising from foreign surrogacy arrangements

Surrogacy arrangements abroad involve risks and uncertainties:

• There is no certainty about the legal status of the child and the intended parents in terms of family law.
• It is not possible to guarantee that the surrogate mother will give up the baby to the intended parents or that they will get the child to Finland.
• There is very little research about the psychosocial effects of surrogacy on the child.
• There is no certainty about the surrogate mother's background, motives and grounds for volunteering to carry another person's baby as a surrogate. The surrogate mother may be a victim of exploitation or the arrangement may involve even aspects comparable to child trafficking. The compensations payable to the surrogate mother and the foreign intermediary often exceed the actual costs of the arrangement.
• There are no guarantees that the surrogate mother and the child will receive the healthcare services they need in the country of surrogacy, and it is possible that their physical health and need for psychosocial support will be neglected.

In surrogacy arrangements abroad, not only Finnish legislation but also the legislation of the country in question must be taken into account. There may be differences between the legislation of Finland and that of the country in which the child is born, which affects, for example, the child’s family law status

Legal parenthood

In Finland, the provisions of the Parenthood Act(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window) apply to the determination of paternity. The Parenthood Act does not contain any specific provisions on surrogacy.

Under t(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)he Parenhood Act, the mother of the child is the person who has given birth to the child.

A foreign decision on the establishment of maternity(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window) is not recognised in Finland if a person habitually resident in Finland has had a child through surrogate arrangements in a foreign country.

A foreign decision by which someone is established as the mother of a child instead of the woman who gave birth to the child may be recognised only if

• the intended mother has resided in the country that issued the decision for at least one year immediately before the birth of the child, or
• the decision is recognised in the country where the intended mother has resided without interruption for at least one year immediately before the birth of the child. 

If the requirements for the recognition of a foreign decision laid down in the Parenthood Act are not met, legal maternity may, under Finnish law, only be transferred through adoption.

The Finnish authorities do not recommend surrogacy arrangements abroad nor can they take a stand or provide any legal advice in individual cases in advance. Each case will be dealt with separately.