Posts by Marla Neufeld

Under Department of State  (“DOS”) policy, children born to same-sex couples are treated the same way as children born out of wedlock for purposes of determining United States citizenship.  Despite the fact that same sex marriage is a federally recognized institution, the DOS requires the biological father to show a “blood relationship” by clear and…

More and more women are approaching me about the concept of freezing their eggs and fertility preservation pursuant to Florida law. It’s a legitimate consideration women have to make when thinking about when they are ready to build their family and if they want or need to preserve their fertility. Women are born with a…

Each state has different laws regarding surrogacy and some states do require some form of medical necessity before being cleared to proceed with a surrogacy journey. What constitutes this medical need and how such medical need is determined is not specifically defined. Based on U.S. case law, it appears that the determination of a medical…

Surrogacy in the United States is a popular for intended parents who live abroad. Reasons parents work with surrogates in the United States includes strict regulation over reproductive doctors in the U.S., high success rates with many U.S. fertility clinics,  favorable laws in many states, and U.S. citizenship granted to any child born in the…

Miami surrogacy lawyer, Marla Neufeld, was featured in VoyageMIA magazine’s Inspirational Stories feature. The article highlights Florida surrogacy lawyer, Marla Neufeld’s, personal experience with surrogacy and how she took her personal experience and shaped it into her legal work as a third party assisted reproductive attorney in Florida.   CLICK HERE for the full article.

With the increase in people using commercial DNA testing kits, such as AncestryDNA, FamilyTree, MyHeritage, or 23andMe, the ability to be linked with genetic relatives potentially impacts the fact that many donations of genetic material, such as egg donation, sperm donation, and embryo donation, may no longer be anonymous as originally intended.   With the…

I will be speaking at the 2019 ABA Health Law Section meeting in Orlando, Florida in March 2019. The topic I will be speaking on involves regulatory and privacy issues in Assisted Reproductive Technology. The American Bar Association panel is called , “Emerging Privacy and Regulatory Issues in Assisted Reproductive Technologies” Assisted reproductive technology (ART)…

What an honor to be featured in Fort Lauderdale’s magazine, Gold Coast in the December 2018 issue. Writer Eric Barton highlighted in the most beautiful way my personal experience with surrogacy and how it evolved into my starting the Florida surrogacy and reproductive legal practice group at my law firm. The interview for the article…

On Thursday, December 13, 2018, from 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET, I am participating in the American Bar Association webinar, “Regulatory and Privacy Issues in Assisted Reproductive Technology.”  Join our esteemed panel as they discuss: The current state of healthcare and privacy regulation in women’s health Potential risks to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) How the…

Third party assisted reproduction and surrogacy is an ever evolving area that is regulated at various levels including at a constitutional level, state level, Federal level, and self regulation by organizations that establish best practices. Some regulations are based in the law, while some regulation is self-imposed and voluntary/best practices. This article will touch upon some…