Surrogacy arrangements have become an increasingly popular way for childless people to build a family. Yet many jurisdictions do not regulate surrogacy. Even in the ab-sence of surrogacy regulation, if a jurisdiction has no specific legal rules that clarify parenthood following surrogacy, the result is often uncertainty in relation to the legal parental status of the surrogate mother, her spouse or cohabitant, any possible donors, and the commissioning parents. This, in turn, leaves the surrogate-born child’s family law status uncertain.   This thesis examines the legal aspects of parenthood and how it is, or could be, determined in Sweden following surrogacy arrangements. Important aims are to estab-lish whether the current national laws regulating family law can sufficiently protect the interests of the surrogate-born child and the parties to surrogacy arrangements, with an emphasis on interests connected to family law status; to examine the ways in which other jurisdictions (England and Wales, and Israel) have responded to similar issues; and to identify problems and propose alternative solutions in relation to the specific issue of establishing legal parenthood following surrogacy at a domestic level, either with or without State regulation of surrogacy agreements.   Consideration is given to whether it might be appropriate to re-evaluate or qualify the existing presumptions of parenthood, in particular the unwritten presumption of maternity. Several alternatives for the transfer of legal parenthood from the surrogate mother, and her spouse or cohabitant as the case may be, to the commissioning parent or parents are also examined. In addition, the ethical implications of surrogacy ar-rangements are explored in order to provide an insight into the way in which subcon-scious or hidden values might make it difficult for a State to regulate certain areas of private life such as parenthood.   The starting point for the thesis is that it is in the best interests of the child to have parents at birth and that this interest must be prioritised over an intended parent’s interest in becoming a parent. This view is based on and is consistent with existing Swedish law and policy.

Legal Proceeding of Establishing and Disputing Parentage The topic of this thesis is the legal proceedings of establishing or disputing parentage. The aim of the thesis is to provide complex description and analysis of current framework of the proceedings for establishing or disputing parentage in relation to the substantive measures, point out problematic areas and weak spots of the legislation and provide possible solutions de lege ferenda. The text is divided into eight chapters. First chapter deals with the term "parentage" from various perspectives - biological, social, legal and the link between them, mainly with the case law of the Supreme Court, Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights in mind. Second chapter provides the historical evolution of the legal framework for establishing and disputing parentage, going all the way back to the ancient Rome, Austrian Civil Code, the Family Law Code and the Family Code, to the present, where the civil law underwent re-codification and the whole area of family law has been included within the new Civil Code. The third chapter is devoted to the analysis of the substantive measures regarding the establishing and disputing of parentage as described in the Civil Code, because the substantive measures and procedural measures are closely...