Usually not. Under California Family Code section 7613(b), a donor whose semen goes to a licensed physician or licensed sperm bank for use by someone other than the donor's spouse is treated as not the child's legal parent. The exception is a written agreement, signed before conception, making the donor a parent. Home arrangements can reach the same result, with the right proof.
Most people facing this question are standing somewhere specific. Some are two women, married or registered as domestic partners, who conceived with a friend's help years ago and now wonder whether that friend could ever claim custody. Some are planning a pregnancy and want the paperwork right before anyone gets attached. Others are the donor, a brother, a close friend or a stranger through a bank, who wants to know whether a kind act could become a support order. In LGBTQ families the question carries extra weight, because the parent who did not give birth often has no genetic tie, and the law of parentage is what keeps that parent a parent.
This article walks through what the statute says, where the protection for donors has gaps, how the non-birth parent's parentage is secured, and how relationship history, including domestic partnership and the Proposition 8 years, fits in.
The Short Answer Under California Law
Section 7613(b) is often called the donor shield. When the semen is provided to a licensed physician and surgeon or to a licensed sperm bank, and it is used by a woman other than the donor's spouse, the donor "is treated in law as if the donor is not the natural parent of a child thereby conceived." The donor has no parental rights and no parental duties.
There are two routes into that protection. The first is the clinic or bank route just described. The second covers donations that do not pass through a physician or bank. In that case, the donor is still not a parent if the donor and the woman signed a written agreement before conception saying the donor would not be a parent, or if a court finds by clear and convincing evidence that they had an oral agreement to that effect before conception. Clear and convincing evidence is a demanding standard, higher than the usual "more likely than not."
The shield does not depend on whether the person conceiving is married, in a registered domestic partnership, or single. Its focus is the donor, not the recipient's relationship.
That points to a distinction worth holding onto. A donor and an intended parent are different legal categories. A donor supplies genetic material and, under the statute, is generally not a parent. An intended parent is someone who consents to the conception planning to raise the child, and section 7613(a) treats that person as a parent. Two people can share a genetic tie to a child and land in opposite categories.
What California Family Code § 7613 Actually Says
Section 7613 sits inside California's Uniform Parentage Act, the part of the Family Code beginning at section 7600 that governs who a child's legal parents are. Reading the subsections side by side shows how the pieces fit. The full text is on the California Legislative Information site.
Subsection (a)(1) speaks to the intended parent:
"If a woman conceives through assisted reproduction with semen or ova or both donated by a donor who is not the woman's spouse, with the consent of another intended parent, that intended parent is treated in law as if that intended parent is the natural parent of a child thereby conceived. The other intended parent's consent shall be in writing and signed by the other intended parent and the woman conceiving through assisted reproduction."
Written consent, signed by both people, is the mechanism that makes the non-birth intended parent a legal parent. If no writing exists, subsection (a)(2) still lets a court find consent where clear and convincing evidence shows an oral agreement, before conception, that both would be parents.
Subsection (b) speaks to the donor, as described above. The licensed physician or sperm bank matters because it supplies the protection automatically. When those intermediaries are involved, the donor is not a parent unless a pre-conception writing says otherwise. When they are not, the protection depends on a signed agreement or on proof of an oral one. The burden flips.
The statute also covers egg and embryo providers. Under subsections (c) and (d), a person who provides ova or an embryo to someone other than their spouse or nonmarital partner is generally not a parent, unless the court finds satisfactory evidence that everyone intended that person to have parental rights.
One more definition matters. Section 7601 defines "natural parent" as a nonadoptive parent established under the Uniform Parentage Act, "whether biologically related to the child or not." When section 7613(a) treats an intended parent as a natural parent, that is a full legal parent, genetics aside.
When the Donor Shield Does Not Apply: Known Donors and Private Arrangements
Home insemination with a friend's donation is where questions most often arise. Without a licensed physician or sperm bank, subsection (b)(2) protects the donor only if there is a signed pre-conception agreement that the donor would not be a parent, or a court finds an oral agreement by clear and convincing evidence. If neither exists, the shield may not apply.
A written known-donor agreement is a contract between the donor and the person conceiving. When it was signed before conception and states that the donor will not be a parent, section 7613(b)(2)(A) gives it real legal effect on the parentage question. An agreement signed after conception, or one that is vague, stands on weaker ground. Whether a given document holds up is something a court decides on its own terms; no agreement guarantees a result.
The statutory forms in section 7613.5 carry a clear warning on this point: "Signing this form does not terminate the parentage claim of a sperm donor." Those forms document the intended parents' consent. They do not, by themselves, cut off a known donor.
Conduct after birth can also matter. Section 7611(d) presumes a person to be a parent if that person "receives the child into their home and openly holds out the child as their natural child." A known donor who later lives with the child and presents the child as their own could fall within that presumption, even where the conception was meant to be donor-only. The donor shield and the holding-out presumption are separate rules, and facts can trigger both.
Paperwork signed at the hospital can matter as well. A voluntary declaration of parentage is a form that, once properly signed, can establish legal parentage without a court case. A donor who signs one is stepping into the role of a parent, not away from it.
Finally, California law allows a court to find that a child has more than two legal parents. That came from SB 274 (Stats. 2013, ch. 564). It becomes relevant where a known donor has built a parental relationship alongside two intended parents.
Child Support: Can a Sperm Donor Be Ordered to Pay?
A donor protected by section 7613(b) is not a legal parent, and a person who is not a legal parent has no child support obligation. For donations through a licensed physician or sperm bank without a pre-conception agreement making the donor a parent, that is the end of the question.
The risk sits in the gap cases. If a home insemination happened without a qualifying written or provable oral agreement, a court could find the donor to be a legal parent. Once parentage exists, support follows, because section 7602 extends the parent and child relationship "equally to every child and to every parent, regardless of the marital status of the parents."
There is a difference between what the adults promise each other and what the child is owed. California generally treats child support as the child's right, not a bargaining chip between parents, so adults cannot sign it away on the child's behalf. A known-donor agreement matters because it can prevent parentage from arising in the first place under section 7613(b)(2). A clause that simply says "the donor will never owe support" does little work if the donor turns out to be a parent. How support is calculated once it applies is covered in our same-sex support FAQs; this article does not address amounts.
Parentage for the Intended Parent: How California Establishes It
For the parent who did not give birth, the question flips from "am I safe from a claim?" to "am I secure as a parent?" California offers more than one route, and families often use several at once.
Assisted-reproduction consent. Under section 7613(a), signed written consent makes the intended parent a legal parent. Section 7613.5 offers optional statutory forms that satisfy the writing requirement, though any qualifying signed writing works. Those forms do not apply to gestational carrier or surrogacy arrangements.
Marital and partnership presumptions. Section 7611(a) presumes a person to be a parent when they are married to the birth parent and the child is born during the marriage, or within 300 days after it ends. Section 7540 adds that a child of spouses who lived together at conception and birth is conclusively presumed a child of the marriage, subject to narrow exceptions. Section 297.5(d) makes these rules reach registered domestic partners: "The rights and obligations of registered domestic partners with respect to a child of either of them shall be the same as those of spouses." Under AB 205 (Stats. 2003, ch. 421), from January 1, 2005, registered domestic partners have the rights and duties of spouses, whenever they registered.
Voluntary declaration of parentage. Unmarried intended parents can also sign this form. A voluntary declaration of parentage is available at hospitals, local child support agency offices, local registrars of births and deaths, courts and county welfare departments (Family Code section 7571), and a signed declaration is filed with the Department of Child Support Services (Family Code section 7573).
Court judgment. A parentage judgment is a court order declaring who the child's parents are. Some intended parents seek one before birth; others after. It is the most formal route and the one most likely to settle questions later, a topic we cover more fully in our article on rights of non-biological parents.
Adoption is a separate process. Adoption, including a step-parent or second-parent adoption, creates parentage through a different legal path. Section 8700, for example, governs how a birth parent relinquishes a child to an agency. Our article on adoption for same-sex couples explains that process as information. The firm does not take adoption matters.
Same-Sex Couples, LGBTQ Families, and Donor Conception in California
California's Uniform Parentage Act applies the same way regardless of the sex or sexual orientation of the parents. A same-sex spouse or registered domestic partner who signs consent under section 7613(a) is a legal parent on the same footing as any other spouse. Section 7613.5's own form notes that "a spouse or domestic partner of the parent giving birth is presumed to be a legal parent of any child born during the marriage or domestic partnership."
Relationship history matters here more than in most families. In November 2008, California voters approved Proposition 8, providing that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. California allowed no new same-sex marriages from November 2008 until after Hollingsworth v. Perry was decided on June 26, 2013. That decision turned on standing only: the petitioners lacked standing to appeal the District Court's order, and the Ninth Circuit's judgment was vacated and remanded.
Couples who could not marry during those years often registered as domestic partners, and many had children by donor conception in that window. For those families, the partnership carries the same parentage weight as marriage under section 297.5 and AB 205, and parentage rests on section 7613(a) consent or the presumptions in section 7611. Many of these couples later married each other. Under California law, the partnership and the marriage generally remain two relationships that a court can dissolve together in one proceeding, which matters when dating a child's birth, or property, against the couple's legal history. Those divorce questions are covered in our guides to same-sex divorce in California and parental rights in divorce.
SB 274's allowance for more than two parents is sometimes the right frame for families where two mothers or two fathers raise a child together with an involved known donor.
One last point, mentioned briefly: not every state treats every California parentage document the same way. A court judgment tends to travel more reliably than a presumption alone. Families who move often ask about this.
Practical Steps: Protecting Parentage Before and After Birth
The tools California law offers fall into a rough timeline. None is mandatory, and which ones fit depends on the family.
Before conception. Written consent under section 7613(a), signed by both intended parents, is the foundation. Using a licensed physician or sperm bank triggers the donor shield in section 7613(b)(1) automatically. Where a known donor is involved without a clinic, a signed pre-conception agreement stating the donor will not be a parent is the writing section 7613(b)(2)(A) describes.
At or after birth. A voluntary declaration of parentage is available at hospitals, local child support agency offices, local registrars of births and deaths, courts and county welfare departments (Family Code section 7571), and a signed declaration is filed with the Department of Child Support Services (Family Code section 7573). The California Courts self-help pages on parentage explain how parentage cases work in Superior Court.
Through the court. A parentage judgment, sought before or after birth, puts parentage in an order rather than relying on presumptions. Section 7730 notes that such a judgment can also include protective or restraining orders where needed.
The known-donor agreement's limits. It is a contract between adults. It can help prevent the donor from becoming a parent if signed before conception, but it does not waive a child's right to support from anyone who is a legal parent, and it does not override conduct that triggers the holding-out presumption.
Adoption remains a distinct path from all of the above.
If You'd Like to Talk Through Your Family's Situation
Parentage questions in donor-conceived families rarely turn on one fact. The answer usually depends on how the donation happened, what was signed and when, whether the parents were married or registered at the birth, and how everyone has acted since. A consultation is the place to lay those facts against sections 7613 and 7611 and see where a family stands, whether the issue is a known donor, a non-birth parent's security in a divorce, or custody. The firm practices California family law only and does not take adoption matters, so readers whose question is purely about adoption may find an adoption attorney a more useful first call.
To talk through a parentage, custody or divorce question involving donor conception, call LGBTDivorceLaw.com at (866) 343-4226 for a confidential consultation.