ABA Family Legal Guide

Family Law

Children

Paternity

Do medically assisted pregnancies affect parental rights?

As medical science advances, there are a variety of ways in which individuals who wish to become parents can be helped to do so by medically assisted means, including artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization. These medical procedures have legal implications that vary by state. Generally, however, if both husband and wife consent to artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization, the rights and duties of the husband, the wife, and the child will be the same as if the child had been naturally conceived.