Legal note: This page summarizes the statutory text for educational purposes and is not legal advice. Florida reproductive counsel should review the intended parents' eligibility, contract and parentage strategy before treatment.
Who the statutory route describes
Florida Statutes §742.15 states that the commissioning couple must be legally married to each other and at least 18 years old, and that the gestational surrogate must be at least 18.
Medical-condition requirement
The statute also conditions use of this gestational-surrogacy contract route on a Florida-licensed physician determining, within reasonable medical certainty, that the commissioning mother cannot physically carry a pregnancy to term, that gestation would create a risk to her physical health, or that gestation would create a risk to the fetus.
Medical decision-making
The statute requires the contract to recognize the gestational surrogate as the sole source of consent for clinical intervention and management of the pregnancy. This is an important distinction between parentage planning and the surrogate's authority over her own medical care.
Parentage process
Florida law pairs the contract provisions in §742.15 with the judicial process described in §742.16. Intended parents should have counsel map the required filings and post-birth steps for their specific case rather than assuming a generic “pre-birth order” process.
Compensation language is limited
Section 742.15 expressly refers to payment of reasonable living, legal, medical, psychological and psychiatric expenses directly related to the prenatal, intrapartal and postpartum periods. This page does not characterize Florida as allowing a particular compensation package beyond what current counsel confirms under applicable law.
Families outside the statutory wording
The statutory language is specific. Unmarried intended parents, single intended parents and families whose facts do not fit §742.15 should not assume that this statutory route applies to them. They need individualized Florida legal advice about any alternative parentage or assisted-reproduction pathway.
Planning beyond the legal framework
Once the Florida legal route is understood, intended parents still need to evaluate the practical side of the journey. Review how surrogacy costs can differ by state, compare agency and case-management fees, and understand the tradeoffs between searching available surrogate profiles and choosing a provider first.
Related: all state legal guides · surrogacy legal process · how to find a surrogate