The practice of surrogacy in Canada is legal, but as per the Assisted Human Reproduction Act passed in 2004, it is illegal for a surrogate to be compensated for her services, except for the reimbursement of reasonable out of pocket expenses during her pregnancy.There are two types of surrogacy: Traditional Surrogacy and Gestational Surrogacy.
Traditional Surrogacy is where a surrogate allows herself to be inseminated with the intended father’s sperm, with the intention of giving up the child when it is born. The lower costs associated with this type of surrogacy make it an attractive option to some intended parents, but it carries tremendous legal risk because the child is genetically related to the surrogate. With or without a surrogacy agreement, it is impossible to adequately safeguard the rights of the intended parents.
Gestational Surrogacy involves the transfer of an unrelated embryo to the uterus of the surrogate. The embryo could be the result of in vitro fertilization (IVF) using the intended mother’s egg and the intended father’s sperm, or donor gametes could be involved. The main characteristic that makes gestational surrogacy less risky from a legal perspective is that the surrogate is unrelated to the child.
