Questions to Ask Before Signing a Surrogacy Agreement

Who is responsible for each step?

List every participant and provider named in the journey, including the contracting agency entity, clinic, surrogate, donor if relevant, storage provider, payment recipient, translators, Georgian professionals and destination-country advisers. Ask whether each is a party to the same contract, a party to a separate contract or an independent third party. The answer determines who has accepted a duty and where a remedy might lie.

Ask who advises whom. A lawyer introduced or paid through a provider may still have professional duties, but the intended parents should not infer that the lawyer represents them. Request a written engagement identifying the client, scope, conflicts position and responsibility for Georgian or foreign-law questions.

What is included, excluded and separately charged?

Ask for an itemised scope that can be reconciled with the price schedule. Broad labels such as legal support, exit assistance, pregnancy coordination or complete package are not enough. Identify the specific deliverable, the responsible entity, the completion point and any third-party or official fee that is outside the amount stated.

For each payment, ask what event makes it due, what evidence proves that event, whether the amount is earned immediately, where any reserve is held, how additional spending is approved and how unused funds are returned or accounted for. Then ask how currency conversion, bank costs, tax or third-party price changes are treated if relevant to the proposed arrangement.

How will consent, records and instructions be handled?

Ask which treatment and data-use decisions require a participant’s current written consent and how a changed plan is documented. Confirm how the clinic version, participant agreement and agency instructions relate to one another. No commercial description should substitute for the informed-consent process required for the person receiving medical care.

Ask what records intended parents will receive, at what stage and under what authority. Distinguish their own contractual or payment records from another person’s medical or genetic data. The agreement should address confidentiality, permitted sharing, secure communication, retention, corrections and the process for a lawful record request without assuming automatic access.

What happens if plans change?

Use realistic scenarios before signature: a treatment plan changes; a transfer is cancelled; a participant withdraws or must be replaced; pregnancy support extends; an original document contains an error; the embassy requests additional evidence; a foreign authority does not accept the expected route; or a provider relationship ends. Ask who decides, who pays, which notice is required, who keeps records and whether the intended parents can pause or terminate.

Finally, ask how disagreement is managed. A useful answer covers prompt operational escalation, formal notice, access to documents and funds, negotiation, urgent relief where available, governing law and forum. Do not wait for a dispute to discover that related contracts use incompatible procedures or that a short notice deadline has passed.

• Which obligations survive termination?
• How are unused funds and original records transferred?
• What cooperation remains necessary for birth or later evidence?
• Which law and forum apply to each related agreement?
• What event requires immediate medical, public-authority or legal action?

Official sources and legal limits

The following primary sources informed this guide. Official English translations and service pages are useful orientation, but current Georgian text, implementing rules, authority practice and the particular facts should be checked before individual advice is given.