In Tennessee,gestational surrogacyis neither allowed nor disallowed by Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-1-102(50). It defines surrogacy as comprising two situations: 1) gestational surrogacy where both intended parents furnish the gametes and 2) gestational surrogacy where the intended father furnishes the sperm and the surrogate relinquishes the child to him and his wife.
Traditional (genetic) surrogacy,like gestational surrogacy, is defined, but neither expressly allowed nor disallowed in the Tennessee Code. In 2014, the Tennessee Supreme Court issued an opinion in the case of In Re: Baby (447 S.W.3d 807), holding that the parental rights of traditional surrogates could not be terminated prior to the birth of the child but must, instead, be addressed like the parental rights of any other woman giving birth to her own genetic child. For this reason, traditional surrogacy is discouraged in the state of Tennessee.
