Delivering Babies (No Hospital Required)

Steve Snyder does everything he can to help families have children

August 1, 2008

By Maggie Koerth-Baker
Originally published in Minnesota Law & Politics

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Being able to start a family is something most people take for granted. But for would-be parents who need an egg donor or a surrogate, the simple process of reproducing becomes a lot more complicated —and requires a lot more paperwork.

That’s where Steve Snyder comes in.

Twenty years ago, Snyder, the founder of Steven H. Snyder and Associates, was asked to represent a Minnesota woman who was serving as a surrogate for a German couple. “Basically, my job was getting the Germans legally declared the parents so they could go home with their child,” he says. It was one of the first surrogacy parentage orders ever done in Hennepin County and it led Snyder to a unique legal niche.

Today, he’s both a specialist in assisted reproduction law and the director of the International Assisted Reproduction Center (IARC), the same organization he worked with on that first case in 1988. The IARC facilitates assisted reproduction by recruiting, qualifying and matching egg donors and surrogates with would-be parents from around the world.

Snyder’s knowledge of the law—such as knowing why some surrogate situations turn sour and what the rules are in different states —has helped him create better standards for choosing surrogates. Meanwhile, his work with the IARC has prepared him to deal with surrogate contract issues that go beyond the basics, like breastfeeding, health insurance policies, and whether the child should stay in the room with a surrogate after birth. “Being an attorney makes me a better agency director. Being an agency director makes me a better attorney,” he says. “They kind of feed each other.”