SURROGACY IN GREECE
Law 3305/2005 (“Enforcement of Medically Assisted Reproduction”) Surrogacy in Greece is fully legal and is only one of a handful of countries in the world to give legal protection to intended parents. Intended parents must meet certain qualifications, and will go before a family judge before starting their journey. As long as they meet the qualifications, the court appearance is procedural and will be granted their application. At present, intended parents must be in a heterosexual partnership or be a single female. Females must be able to prove there is a medical indication they cannot carry and be no older than 50 at the time of the contract. As in all jurisdictions, surrogates must pass medical and psychological tests so they can prove to the court that they are medically and mentally fit. What is unique about Greece is that it is the only country in Europe, and one of only countries in the world where the surrogate then has no rights over the child. The intended parents become the legal parents from conception and there is no mention of the surrogate mother anywhere on hospital or birth documents. The intended parent(s) are listed as the parents. This even applies if an egg or sperm donor is used by one of the partners. An added advantage for Europeans is that, due to the Schengen Treaty, they can freely travel home as soon as the baby is born and deal with citizenship issues at that time, as opposed to applying at their own embassy in Greece. The old regime (pursuant to art. 8 of Law 3089/2002), one of the prerequisites for granting the judicial permission for surrogacy was also the fact that the surrogate mother and the commissioning parents should be Greek citizens or permanent residents. However, the law has recently (in July 2014) changed and the new provisions of L. 4272/2014 foresee now that the surrogacy is allowed to applicants or surrogate mothers who have their permanent or temporary residence in Greece. With this new law Greece becomes the only EU country with a comprehensive framework to regulate, facilitate and enforce surrogacy, as according to the explanatory statement of the art. 17 of the L. 4272/2014: “The possibility is now extending also to applicants or surrogate mothers who have their permanent residence outside Greece”.