Single, successful, bachelor seeking egg donor and surrogate.
Ok. So maybe that’s not something you’d see on a Tinder profile, but it’s becoming more and more common for single men to become fathers.
Did you know that over 2 million men in the United States are single fathers? Just as women may delay motherhood for an education and a career, many men find themselves following that same path. During their 20s and 30s, they’re learning and working. Then they decide they want a family: with or without a partner. So how do single men find success in surrogacy?
Becoming a Single Father
Thanks to egg donation and surrogacy, becoming a single dad isn’t as complicated as some might think.
Here are the basics:
Find an Egg Donor
The first step in becoming a single dad is finding an egg donor. An egg donor is a woman who is willing to donate her eggs to allow the recipient to have a baby. In this case, the dad would use his own sperm and the donor’s egg to create an embryo.
To find an egg donor, it’s best to go through a reputable egg donor agency. Because the child will be genetically connected to the egg donor, it’s essential that the women are carefully screened and tested to make sure they’re healthy enough to donate their eggs.
You’ll want to find an egg donor agency that provides many quality egg donors to choose from. Most of our clients like to find egg donors who have a specific look or have similar interests. Contact us to find out more about our egg donors.
Find a Surrogate
Once your egg donor has gone through the egg retrieval process, you’ll need to decide what you want to do with the embryos. The embryos can either be frozen to use at a later date or implanted immediately into a surrogate.
A surrogate is a woman who will carry your embryo for nine months, and then birth the baby. This is a woman who has already had successful pregnancies and has proven healthy enough to carry a baby through a pregnancy.
Parental Rights
We often get questions about parental rights. Don’t worry; we use legal contracts that protect the rights of all parties involved. When a woman donates her eggs, she is doing so because she wants to help others — not to become a mother. And to protect the intended parent, a legal contract is signed at the very beginning of the process.
When it comes to the surrogate, she doesn’t have any genetic link to the baby; therefore, she can’t claim parental rights. But to be sure everyone is on the same page, we also make sure all the legal contracts in place.
Both the egg donor and the surrogate will receive compensation from the intended parents.
Surrogacy Laws
When it comes to single men becoming fathers, some of the biggest obstacles may come from the strict surrogacy laws in place.
The United States
In the United States alone, every state has its own laws, and it can be hard to know where surrogacy is legal and where it’s not.
Here’s a quick rundown of which states are surrogacy friendly:
Arkansas
California
Illinois
Maryland
Oregon
New Hampshire
New Jersey
Washington D.C.
Here are the states where surrogacy is illegal:
Arizona
North Dakota
Michigan
All other states are either unregulated, or they only allow altruistic surrogacy. Altruistic surrogacy is when you get a friend or relative to be a surrogate for you, and the surrogate is not compensated.
While asking a woman you know and trust may seem like a good option, we’d suggest otherwise. If a single man decides to use someone they know as their surrogate, it can be harder to define parental rights without the use of an agency or lawyer.
International Surrogacy
If you think the United States’ surrogacy laws are complicated, it just gets worse when you try to work with intended couples and surrogates from other countries. That’s why we highly recommend consulting with professional surrogacy agencies who can help walk you through all the red tape.
For example, Canada only allows altruistic surrogacy, Great Britain gives parental rights to the surrogate mothers, and in Australia, it’s banned altogether. So make sure you understand all the laws before you get started.
Get Started Now
We live in exciting times. We live during a time where men can be fathers whether they’re married or single, whether they love a man or a woman, or whether they’re 20 years old or 50 years old.
Egg donation and surrogacy have opened up so many doors and have helped so many individuals realize their dreams of having a family.
