Greek legislation differs substantially from the vast majority of European countries whose legislations prohibit any form of surrogate maternity. The transfer of fertilized ova to another woman and her pregnancy is permitted by court authorization before the transfer.
The authorization is issued after an application by the woman who wants to have a child (“commissioning mother”), providing, among other, that there is a written agreement between the two parties and is confirmed that the commissioning mother is medically unable to conceive.
Τhe surrogate mother should not have exceed the age of 54 (1704/2022, 5524/Τ.Β’/26.10.2022), not undergone more than two caesarean sections and fertilized ova do not belong to her (the surrogate mother).
For surrogate mothers aged 50-54 years old, in order to protect the wellbeing of the child to be born, an additional specific consent and permission from the Greek National Authority of Assisted Reproduction is mandatory, based on the evidence of her good health condition.
The agreement must be with no financial benefit for the latter. The law clarifies that the following do not constitute financial gain: a. the payment of expenses involved in the achievement of a pregnancy, the gestation, delivery and post-partum period, and b. any incidental loss of profit by the child-bearing woman because of absence from work, or the loss of remuneration for salaried employment which she has missed because of absence related to the purpose of pregnancy, gestation, labor or post-partum period.
One of the prerequisites for granting the judicial authorization for surrogacy was the fact that both the surrogate mother and the commissioning parents should be obligatorily Greek citizens or permanent residents of Greece.
Following a modification of the above provision, the surrogacy is now allowed disjunctively to either applicants or surrogate mothers who have their permanent or temporary residence in Greece, thus extending this possibility also to applicants or surrogate mothers who have their permanent residence outside Greece.
Under this new regime, surrogacy in Greece is open for foreigners as well,
while Greece is one of the few countries worldwide to provide a comprehensive framework to regulate, facilitate and enforce surrogacy all by giving legal protection to intended parents even coming from abroad.
Further information on the surrogacy proceedings in Greece you may find here.
