Surrogacy Portugal

The surrogacy law in PORTUGAL

On August 22, 2016, Law 25/2016 was published, establishing the conditions to implement surrogacy in Portugal, coming into effect on August 2017.

It was repealed by the Portuguese constitutional court considering that it violated principles and rights among them the repentance of the surrogate woman.

In July 2019, a surrogacy bill was passed again but there was no consensus among the deputies to include the repentance deadline, so the Court vetoed it again.

Subsequently, on November 26, 2021 it was approved again, (enacted by the President of Portugal on November 30, 2021) allowing the surrogate woman to repent within up to 20 days after delivery.

The regulation allows access to women without a uterus or with an injury or clinical situation that prevents them "absolutely and definitively" from becoming pregnant, without implying any economic benefit.

If you would like more information about our programs, you can make a free, no-obligation telephone appointment by CLICKING HERE.

Special characteristics of the country:

The surrogacy law in Portugal requires that the surrogate mother must prove with a medical certificate that she does not have a uterus, or that as a result of medical problems, her uterus will not be able to gestate a baby. The law makes no mention of other possible reasons, which greatly reduces the possibilities of access:

• Only altruistic surrogacy is allowed. The surrogate mother may not receive any financial compensation for carrying the pregnancy to term.
• You must be Portuguese or a permanent resident in Portugal.
• You must be a married heterosexual couple (excluding singles).
• The performance and acceptance of the treatment will depend on the authorization of the CNPMA (Conselho Nacional de Procriação Medicamente Assistida) and the previous opinion of the Ordem dos Médicos (Medical Order.)
• There is no social security, therefore all medical expenses that may occur are your responsibility.
• There is no fixed price for surrogacy in Portugal. If there are extra expenses, such as incubator, etc., you will have to pay for them, which can increase the cost of the process.

In all the time that the law has been in force, only one surrogacy process has been done, in which a intended mother used her mother as the surrogate( i.e. , the future grandmother of the baby) to gestate it. This makes this law a nice theory, but very few couples will be able to have this available to them.

If you would like more information about our programs, you can make a free, no-obligation telephone appointment by CLICKING HERE.