Surrogacy is a legal construct that is not (yet) legally regulated, therefore it raises a wave of ethical, moral and legal issues around the world. After studying foreign and domestic literature, analyzing different cases, analyzing different legal regulations, it's safe to say, that surrogacy is a construct, that it is in much need of legal regulations, because of the current wide field of discretion in relation to determining legal parenthood. After examinating different literatures a conclusion was reached, that surrogacy should not be considered as baby-selling, because the mother is paid for her service and not for handing over the child. Only proposals and different attempts of regulating surrogacy exist so far, plus they haven't been ratified by many countries. Two legal constructs were compared, adoption and surrogacy. Based on that it was discovered, that the main difference is seen in regulations themselves and it's in practicabillity. Because of the long procedures and their complexity, couples rather decide for surrogacy instead of adoption, by which they can keep their genetic ties. Different precedent cases were analyzed that had a big impact on the development and the liberalization of surrogacy. Based on these cases and other factors, 3 theories have been developed upon which legal parenthood can be determined.

Nadomestno materinstvo je institut, ki (še) ni pravno urejen, zato po svetu vzbuja val etičnih, moralnih in pravnih vprašanj. Po proučitvi tako tuje kot domače literature, analizi različnih sodnih praks in različnih pravnih ureditev je mogoče sklepati, da je nadomestno materinstvo institut, ki je nujno potreben pravne ureditve, ker gre sicer za ogromno polje diskrecijskega odločanja glede določitve oziroma dodelitve zakonitega starševstva. Na osnovi proučitve različne literature je bilo ugotovljeno, da pri nadomestnem materinstvu ne gre za prodajo otrok, ker je nadomestna mati plačana za storitev in ne predajo otroka. Zaenkrat obstajajo zgolj predlogi in poskusi regulacije nadomestnega materinstva, ki pa jih je ratificiralo malo držav. Primerjana sta bila institut posvojitve in institut nadomestnega materinstva. Ugotovljena je bia ključna razlika med njima v zakonski urejenosti, pa tudi v praktični izvedljivosti. Pari se zaradi dolgotrajnosti in zapletenosti posvojitvenega postopka raje odločajo za nadomestno materinstvo, s tem pa tudi ohranijo genetsko vez. Analizirani so bili tudi precedenčni primeri, ki so imeli velik vpliv na razvoj in liberalizacijo nadomestnega materinstva. Na osnovi teh in drugih dejavnikov so se razvile tri ključne teorije, na osnovi katerih se lahko določi zakonito starševstvo.