Building a family through assisted reproduction is a legal undertaking as much as a medical one. Florida has a specific statutory framework governing donation of eggs, sperm, and preembryos, and the documents signed at the outset determine who the legal parents are, what rights a donor retains or gives up, and what happens to stored genetic material years later. These questions are answered far more cheaply and reliably before conception than after.
The Law Offices of Monique K. Pope, P.A. prepares and reviews donor agreements, embryo disposition agreements, and related documents for intended parents, known donors, and families working with fertility clinics throughout Florida.
Florida’s Framework
Chapter 742 of the Florida Statutes governs the determination of parentage in assisted reproduction. Under Section 742.14, a donor of eggs, sperm, or preembryos relinquishes all parental rights and obligations with respect to the resulting child, other than a commissioning couple or a father who has executed a preplanned adoption agreement. Section 742.11 addresses the presumed parentage of children conceived through artificial or in vitro insemination and donated eggs or preembryos.
These provisions do substantial work, but they do not answer every question a family will face, and clinic consent forms are not a substitute for an agreement drafted for the specific arrangement.
A Recent Decision Every Intended Parent Should Know About
In December 2025, in Brito v. Salas, the Florida Supreme Court held that Section 742.14 applies only where a child is conceived through assisted reproductive technology involving laboratory handling of eggs or preembryos. The decision was 4-3. A man who provided sperm to a couple that conceived through at-home artificial insemination was found not to have automatically relinquished his parental rights, and he was permitted to pursue a determination of paternity.
The practical consequence is significant and is not yet widely understood. Where conception occurs through a licensed clinic using assisted reproductive technology, the statutory relinquishment operates as it always has. Where a known donor provides genetic material for at-home insemination, it does not. In that situation the donor may be able to seek paternity, time-sharing, and a role in the child’s life years later — including against the wishes of everyone who was party to the original arrangement.
Anyone who has conceived, or is planning to conceive, using a known donor outside a clinical setting should treat this as a matter requiring counsel. A carefully drafted written agreement is now doing work that many families previously assumed the statute would do for them.
Known donor situations generally — where the donor is a friend or relative rather than an anonymous match through a bank — require careful documentation, because the parties have an ongoing relationship and expectations the statute does not address.
Known Donor Agreements
When intended parents use a donor they know personally, the agreement should establish, in writing and before any medical procedure, that the donor relinquishes all parental rights and responsibilities and asserts no claim to custody, time-sharing, or decision-making. It should also address the practical questions the parties will actually confront: whether the donor will have contact with the child, in what form, and on whose terms; what the child will be told and when; whether the donor’s identity will be disclosed to the child at a particular age; whether the donor may be contacted for medical history; and what financial obligations, if any, exist between the parties.
Disposition of Stored Eggs, Sperm, and Embryos
Section 742.17 of the Florida Statutes provides that a couple and their treating physician shall enter a written agreement providing for the disposition of eggs, sperm, and preembryos in the event of divorce, the death of a spouse, or another unforeseen circumstance. Disputes over stored embryos following a divorce are among the most difficult matters in this area, and the outcome frequently turns on what the parties signed years earlier. A disposition agreement should address divorce, the death of one or both parties, separation, failure to pay storage fees, and abandonment or loss of contact with the facility.
Gestational Surrogacy and Preplanned Adoption
Florida permits gestational surrogacy under Section 742.15, which sets out requirements for the contract, including that the commissioning couple be legally married and that both the couple and the gestational surrogate be at least eighteen years of age. Where those statutory requirements are not met — for a single intended parent, for example — the preplanned adoption framework at Section 63.213 may apply instead. Determining which path fits a particular family is a threshold question that should be resolved before any agreement is drafted.
Why This Should Not Wait
Agreements in this area are effective when they are executed before conception and ineffective, or badly compromised, when they are attempted afterward. If you are working with a clinic, a known donor, or a surrogate, engage counsel at the same time you begin the medical process rather than after it is underway.
The firm represents clients throughout Florida, and consultations are available in person, by telephone, and by video. To discuss a donor agreement, embryo disposition agreement, or surrogacy arrangement, contact the Law Offices of Monique K. Pope, P.A. to schedule a consultation. Se habla español.