How to Make a Surrogacy Agreement Legal in BC

Surrogacy is one of the most generous things one person can do for another. It is also one of the most legally specific paths to parenthood in British Columbia.

Get the process right and you can register your child's parentage without ever seeing a courtroom. Get it wrong and you may find yourself adopting your own child after the fact.

This page explains what BC law requires, what a sound surrogacy agreement covers, and what happens when things do not go to plan.

Surrogacy is legal in BC, and only in its altruistic form

Surrogacy in Canada is governed by the federal Assisted Human Reproduction Act, and BC's Family Law Act sets out how parentage is established here at home. The two work together, and both matter.

The central rule is that surrogacy in Canada is altruistic. A surrogate cannot be paid a fee for carrying a child. She can be reimbursed for documented out-of-pocket expenses set out in the federal Reimbursement Regulations, including travel, medications, maternity clothing, and care for dependants or pets while she attends appointments.

Receipts are required for reimbursement, and lost work income can only be reimbursed where a medical practitioner certifies in writing that continuing to work would pose a risk. Paying beyond those limits is a federal offence carrying a fine of up to $500,000, imprisonment of up to 10 years, or both.

Gestational surrogacy (where the surrogate has no genetic connection to the child) and traditional surrogacy (where the surrogate's own eggs are used) are both possible in BC. In either case, conception must happen through assisted reproduction. Conception through sexual intercourse takes the arrangement outside the assisted reproduction rules entirely.

A surrogate must also be at least 21 years old under federal law.

The two-step process BC law requires

BC uses a two-step framework to make intended parents the child's legal parents. Both steps are required, and neither can substitute for the other.

Step 1: A written surrogacy agreement before conception.

The agreement must be in place before the child is conceived. This is not a formality that can be caught up later. If the arrangement is documented after conception, the Family Law Act's surrogacy rules do not apply, and the intended parents are looking at adoption after birth instead.

The agreement must state:

• The surrogate will not be a parent of the child.
• The surrogate will surrender the child to the intended parent or parents.
• The intended parent or parents will be the child's parents.

No one can have withdrawn from the agreement before conception. If someone does withdraw at that stage, the arrangement simply does not proceed under these rules.

Step 2: Written consent from the surrogate after the birth

Once the child is born, the surrogate gives written consent to surrender the child, and the intended parents take the child into their care. 

The pre-conception agreement is not this consent. It is evidence of what everyone intended, and the post-birth written consent is a separate, required step.

What a surrogacy agreement should cover

A well-drafted agreement does more than clear the legal minimum. It protects the relationship by putting the hard conversations on paper before any hard moment arrives.

A complete agreement usually covers:

• Expense reimbursement, including a schedule and a process for documenting and submitting costs.
• Medical decisions, including prenatal testing, selective reduction, and delivery preferences, and who holds decision-making authority.

• Conduct and lifestyle expectations during the pregnancy.
• Communication boundaries between the surrogate and the intended parents, during pregnancy and afterward.
• What happens if someone withdraws from the agreement before conception.
• Life and disability insurance, and who pays for it.
• What happens if the intended parents separate, or if one of them dies, before the birth.
• Dispute resolution, including the process the parties will use if disagreements arise.
• The handover after birth, and how parentage will be registered.

One clarification matters more than any clause. Surrogacy agreements in Canada are not fully enforceable contracts in the ordinary sense. A court cannot compel a surrogate to relinquish a child, and it cannot compel intended parents to take one. What the agreement does is satisfy the legal requirements for parentage, create a clear record of everyone's intentions, and guide any dispute that comes up.

Why the surrogate needs her own lawyer

The surrogate and the intended parents each need their own independent legal advice. Independent means separate counsel for each side, not one lawyer explaining the document to everyone in the room.

This is not a box-ticking exercise. Independent advice is what demonstrates that the surrogate understood what she was signing and was not pressured into it. It strengthens the agreement rather than weakening it, and it protects the intended parents as much as it protects her.

Can the surrogate change her mind?

This is the question intended parents ask first, and the answer has two halves.

If the surrogate withdraws before conception, the arrangement does not proceed and there is no legal consequence for her withdrawing at that stage.

If she changes her mind after the birth and does not give written consent to surrender the child, the situation becomes a legal dispute. The pre-conception agreement is evidence of everyone's original intentions, and it cannot force the outcome on its own. The intended parents would apply to the BC Supreme Court for a declaration of parentage, and the court would weigh all the circumstances. That kind of dispute can run many months, and sometimes years.

The surrogate keeps decision-making authority over her own body and medical care throughout the pregnancy. No agreement can sign that away, and a document that claims to do so is a warning sign about how it was drafted.

Registering your child after the birth

Where both legal steps were completed, you contact the BC Vital Statistics Agency and ask for the surrogacy package, then follow the steps it sets out. The intended parents are registered as the child's parents and the surrogate is not.

BC is among the most straightforward jurisdictions in the country for this. Families who followed the scheme are usually surprised by how administrative the final step feels.

What this costs, and when to start

The legal work in surrogacy is drafting and advice, not litigation. Cost turns on complexity, and a surrogacy arrangement has more moving parts than most fertility matters because there are two sides each receiving independent advice.

The expensive version is the one where the paperwork was skipped and the problem surfaces after the baby arrives. Fixing it then costs more, takes longer, and lands in the middle of the hardest weeks of new parenthood.

We would be glad to walk this with you

Surrogacy law in BC is navigable. The families we work with tell us the same thing: understanding the framework early is what made the rest of it feel manageable.

We work with intended parents and surrogates across British Columbia, from our offices in Victoria, Nanaimo, Vancouver, and Surrey, and by video anywhere in the province. Journey, our beacon of hope and care, is part of how we remind families that they are not walking this road alone.