N.Y. Family Court Act § 581-102: Definitions

§ 581-102. Definitions. (a) "Assisted reproduction" means a method of

causing pregnancy other than sexual intercourse and includes but is not

limited to:

1. intrauterine or vaginal insemination;

2. donation of gametes;

3. donation of embryos;

4. in vitro fertilization and transfer of embryos; and

5. intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

(b) "Child" means a born individual of any age whose parentage may be

determined under this act or other law.

(c) "Compensation" means payment of any valuable consideration in

excess of reasonable medical and ancillary costs.

(d) "Donor" means an individual who does not intend to be a parent who

produces gametes and provides them to another person, other than the

individual's spouse, for use in assisted reproduction. The term does not

include a person who is a parent under part three of this article. Donor

also includes an individual who had dispositional control of an embryo

or gametes who then transfers dispositional control and releases all

present and future parental and inheritance rights and obligations to a

resulting child.

(e) "Embryo" means a cell or group of cells containing a diploid

complement of chromosomes or group of such cells, not a gamete or

gametes, that has the potential to develop into a live born human being

if transferred into the body of a person under conditions in which

gestation may be reasonably expected to occur.

(f) "Embryo transfer" means all medical and laboratory procedures that

are necessary to effectuate the transfer of an embryo into the uterine

cavity.

(g) "Gamete" means a cell containing a haploid complement of DNA that

has the potential to form an embryo when combined with another gamete.

Sperm and eggs shall be considered gametes. A human gamete used or

intended for reproduction may not contain nuclear DNA that has been

deliberately altered, or nuclear DNA from one human combined with the

cytoplasm or cytoplasmic DNA of another human being.

(h) "Health care practitioner" means an individual licensed or

certified under title eight of the education law, or a similar law of

another state or country, acting within his or her scope of practice.

(i) "Independent escrow agent" means someone other than the parties to

a surrogacy agreement and their attorneys. An independent escrow agent

can, but need not, be a surrogacy program, provided such surrogacy

program is owned by an attorney licensed to practice law in the state of

New York. If such independent escrow agent is not an attorney owned

surrogacy program, it shall be bonded and insured.

(j) "In vitro fertilization" means the formation of a human embryo

outside the human body for purposes of assisted reproduction.

(k) "Intended parent" is an individual who manifests the intent to be

legally bound as the parent of a child resulting from assisted

reproduction or a surrogacy agreement, provided the individual meets the

requirements of this article.

(l) "Parent" as used in this article means an individual with a

parent-child relationship created or recognized under this act or other

law.

(m) "Participant" is an individual who either provides a gamete that

is used in assisted reproduction, is an intended parent, is a person

acting as surrogate, or is the spouse of an intended parent or person

acting as surrogate.

(n) "Person acting as surrogate" means an adult person, not an

intended parent, who enters into a surrogacy agreement to bear a child

who will be the legal child of the intended parent or parents so long as

the person acting as surrogate has not provided the egg used to conceive

the resulting child.

(o) "Record" means information inscribed in a tangible medium or

stored in an electronic or other medium that is retrievable in

perceivable form.

(p) "Retrieval" means the procurement of eggs or sperm from a gamete

provider.

(q) "Spouse" means an individual married to another, or who has a

legal relationship entered into under the laws of the United States or

of any state, local or foreign jurisdiction, which is substantially

equivalent to a marriage, including a civil union or domestic

partnership.

(r) "State" means a state of the United States, the District of

Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any

territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the

United States.

(s) "Surrogacy agreement" means an agreement between at least one

intended parent and a person acting as surrogate intended to result in a

live birth where the child will be the legal child of the intended

parent or parents.

(t) "Transfer" means the placement of an embryo or gametes into the

body of a person with the intent to achieve pregnancy and live birth.