Southern Europe

Surrogacy in Greece: the complete guide to law, process, cost and contract

Each position below names its source and the date it was last checked. Where a rule depends on your circumstances, it says so instead of guessing.

Positions checked Oct 16, 2026

Legal basis

Inside an assisted-reproduction law

Intended parents from abroad

Permitted on conditions

Families the route names

No family type is named

Published cost

None published

Who may commission

Surrogacy is permitted only under a prior court decision (Civil Code article 1458, applied through article 13 of Law 3305/2005), and only for a woman who is unable to carry a pregnancy for medical reasons: the statute defines the arrangement as one woman carrying and giving birth after in-vitro fertilisation and transfer using an ovum foreign to her, on behalf of another woman who wants a child but cannot gestate. The carrying woman may not provide the ovum, and she must pass the article 4 medical examinations and a thorough psychological evaluation. Assisted reproduction itself is confined to adults, with a woman's natural reproductive capacity set by the statute at the age of fifty. Since Law 5197/2025 (16 May 2025) both the intending parents and the surrogate must hold permanent residence in Greece, which closes the route to international intended parents without Greek residence.

Payment

Altruistic only, in the statute's own words: the agreement for a third woman to carry is made without any consideration whatsoever (article 13 paragraph 4). Two things are expressly not consideration: the costs required to achieve the pregnancy, to carry, to give birth and for the postnatal period, and any positive damage the carrier suffers from abstaining from work, including wages she lost for those purposes. The independent regulator sets the amounts that may be covered. Article 26 paragraph 8 punishes taking part in a surrogacy outside the legal conditions with at least two years' imprisonment and a fine of at least 1,500 euros, and applies the same penalty to anyone who announces, promotes or advertises obtaining a child through a third woman, even covertly, or provides professional intermediary services for it.

Parentage

The court decision settles who the parents are. Where the article 1458 permission has been obtained, the presumption of maternity under article 1464 paragraph 1 of the Civil Code attaches to the intending mother to whom the permission was granted, and the presumption of paternity under article 1465 paragraph 1 to her husband. Without the permission the presumption fails and the woman who gave birth - the surrogate - is the legal mother; the academic commentary cited below treats a later adoption around that fact as a circumvention of article 1458 and therefore invalid.

What changed, and when

Dates come from the same sources as the positions below. An entry that says a bill was not adopted is there because the record would be misleading without it.

Jan 27, 2005

Law 3305/2005, published in the Government Gazette on 27 January 2005, set the conditions under which surrogacy is permitted: a prior court decision, a medical inability to gestate, and no payment beyond the costs and lost earnings the regulator defines.

Ν. 3305/2005, ΦΕΚ Α' 17/27.1.2005 (official gazette text) , checked Oct 16, 2026
May 16, 2025

Law 5197/2025, published on 16 May 2025, amended the Civil Code to require that both intending parents and the surrogate hold permanent residence in Greece, closing the route to international intended parents without Greek residence.

Νέο Νομικό Πλαίσιο για την Παρένθετη Μητρότητα στην Ελλάδα (law firm page) , checked Oct 16, 2026

Which families this route is open to

These rows come from the same record as the legal position above, and each one names the source that states it. A family type appears only where that type is written into the provision.

Two men as intended parents

Not permitted

Νέο Νομικό Πλαίσιο για την Παρένθετη Μητρότητα στην Ελλάδα (law firm page) , checked Oct 16, 2026
Intended parents living abroad

Permitted on conditions Both the intending parents and the woman carrying must hold permanent residence in Greece.

Νέο Νομικό Πλαίσιο για την Παρένθετη Μητρότητα στην Ελλάδα (law firm page) , checked Oct 16, 2026

No source listed above settles the position for: A married couple, A couple living together, A single person, Two women as intended parents.

The process, stage by stage

A surrogacy programme is a run of separate stages, not one decision. The order shifts with the destination and with whether you need donated eggs or sperm. The full walkthrough, with the questions each stage raises:

1

Set out your own situation

Your medical, legal and financial facts come first, because they decide which destinations are open to you at all.
2

Choose a destination before a clinic

The place is chosen on legal grounds, before any money moves. The legal-considerations guide lists what to confirm.
3

Screening, both ways

Your fertility work-up and the carrier’s medical and psychological screening. FIGO’s position is that psychological screening and ongoing support should be mandatory.
4

Matching

How a programme pairs you with a carrier is where marketed and delivered service differ most. Ask in writing what happens if a match is not reached.
5

The agreement, and the money behind it

Before treatment, the arrangement is set down in writing and should carry the funds, not just point at them. Escrow is usually funded before the first transfer.
6

Treatment and transfer

Medication and monitoring, then the embryo transfer. From here the timeline is no longer yours: clinic schedule and the carrier’s cycle decide.
7

Pregnancy

Prenatal care is the obstetrician’s. What you pay for, and who decides, are contract questions that should already be settled.
8

Birth and parentage

The parentage path decides what happens in the delivery room and after. Only a lawyer in that jurisdiction can say which path applies to you.
9

Bringing the child home

Registration, passport or consular documents, and whatever your home country requires. Cross-border parents are not rare: a third of US surrogate transfers involved them.

Read the full process guide

Cost figures published for this destination

Each number below is one a named source published, in that source's own currency, for the year stated. It is a published figure with a citation rather than a quote, and the source that printed it is linked from the row.

No cost figure is published here. The payment position above says what may be paid under the rules of this destination, and the questions below say what no source settled.

See every published cost figure

The contract is the legal core

Before any treatment begins, the arrangement should be written down and should carry the money, not merely point at it. What every contract must cover, and the clauses worth insisting on:

Read the legal-considerations guide

Choosing an agency

The agency is the one party whose incentives are not yours by default. We do not name agencies on this site: what follows is how to ask, and how to judge whether an agency is sound, before you sign.

Read the agency-evaluation guide

Questions people ask

Is surrogacy legal everywhere?: No. It ranges from explicitly permitted to prohibited, and within federal countries it varies by state or province. The legal basis for each destination is set out at the top of this page, with its source and the date it was checked.
Can intended parents from another country use this route?: It depends on the destination. The "intended parents from abroad" cell in the summary strip above says whether the sources behind this record admit foreign commissioning parents, and the admissions section below names the family types each rule opens to.
When is parentage settled?: That is the single biggest planning difference between systems. Some name an intended parent at birth; others treat the woman who gives birth as the legal mother until a court moves parentage afterwards. Which one applies to you only a lawyer in that jurisdiction can say.
What does the price usually include?: A programme price is built from several lines, and scope matters more than the headline total. The figures a source has published for this destination are in the cost table above, and the full breakdown of what a quote usually leaves out is in the cost guide.
Do I have to travel there myself?: Usually, yes, at least for some steps. Signing before treatment, attending a court or registrar, collecting documents and staying after the birth are separate requirements that often come from clinic practice and the court rather than the statute. How many trips you can make often narrows the field before cost does.
Is there an average surrogacy cost?: No single figure applies. The total depends on the destination, on what the programme includes, and on what a quote leaves out, so an average would hide the differences that decide whether a plan is feasible. The per-line figures on this page and the cost guide show why.
How does the child come home?: Birth registration, a passport or consular documents, and whatever your home country requires to recognise the arrangement. The steps differ by where the child is born and where you live, and the documents guide walks through them.

What each position rests on

Surrogacy is defined as a woman carrying and giving birth, after in-vitro fertilisation and transfer of fertilised ova, using an ovum foreign to her, on behalf of a woman who desires a child but cannot gestate for medical reasons; it is permitted under the conditions of Civil Code article 1458 and article 8 of Law 3089/2002; the carrier undergoes the article 4 medical examinations and a thorough psychological evaluation; the agreement is made without any consideration, save that neither the costs of achieving the pregnancy, gestation, birth and the postnatal period nor the carrier's lost earnings count as consideration, and the regulator fixes the amounts that may be covered; participation in a surrogacy outside those conditions, and its public announcement or professional brokering, carry at least two years' imprisonment and a fine of at least 1,500 euros.

Ν. 3305/2005, ΦΕΚ Α' 17/27.1.2005 (official gazette text) · Ethniko Typografio (National Printing Office), as published on the site of EOPYY, the national public health organisation , checked Oct 16, 2026
With the court permission article 1458 requires, the presumption of maternity (article 1464 paragraph 1) attaches to the intending mother and the presumption of paternity (article 1465 paragraph 1) to her husband; without it the woman who gave birth is the legal mother. Before May 2025, article 17 of Law 4272/2014 had required only that the applicant or the carrier hold her residence or ordinary abode in Greece.

Η νομοθετική προσέγγιση της παρένθετης μητρότητας (LLM thesis) · Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, IKEE thesis repository , checked Oct 16, 2026
Law 5197/2025 (Government Gazette A' 76, 16 May 2025) amended Civil Code article 1458 and article 8 of Law 3089/2002 to require permanent residence in Greece of both the intending parents and the surrogate, and clarified that an inability to gestate arising only from being a male couple is not the medical inability the article requires.

Νέο Νομικό Πλαίσιο για την Παρένθετη Μητρότητα στην Ελλάδα (law firm page) · Karpouzis & Lianou law firm , checked Oct 16, 2026

What still needs local advice

These are the questions a source in Greece did not settle. They are the ones worth paying a locally qualified lawyer for.

The gazette text of Law 5197/2025 has not been read directly, so the residence requirement and the exclusion of male couples come from law firm accounts; the amendment's precise wording and transitional provisions remain unconfirmed.
The amounts the regulator has actually fixed as the ceiling on reimbursable costs and lost earnings were not found on an openable official page.
Whether a Greek court decision or birth registration is recognised in your own country is a separate question nothing here addresses.

Comparing more than one place?

The comparison only means something when each destination is read against the same set of questions: eligibility, parentage, payment rules and what happens if the plan changes.

Compare destinations side by side Work through the checklist

Legal framework Documents after birth