Surrogacy in Colombia: The What T-968/2009 Actually Said

Many websites describe surrogacy in Colombia as “permitted through court precedent”, as if the 2009 ruling T-968 created rules intended parents can rely on. It didn’t. Here’s what the ruling said, what it didn’t, and what the Court said in 2024.

What the case was about

T-968/2009 concerned twins born through a surrogacy arrangement. The Constitutional Court found that the twins’ best interest had been violated, and faulted a Cali family judge who had treated the dispute as the mother unjustifiably breaching a verbal contract (T-968/2009).

What it said about legality

The Court wrote that “en el ordenamiento jurídico colombiano no existe una prohibición expresa” for these agreements: Colombian law contains no express prohibition. That is not the same as permitting or regulating them.

The ruling also quoted ten conditions that legal scholars recommended for any future regulation. They include that the intended mother has physiological problems conceiving, that the gestational carrier doesn’t provide her own eggs, and that she isn’t acting for profit (as quoted by ICBF).

What it didn’t do

• It didn’t make the conditions binding. They sit in the Court’s reasoning, not in its orders, and analysts call them recommendations (Universidad Externado).
• It didn’t make surrogacy agreements enforceable. No statute governs them.
• It didn’t create a court-approval process. Parentage is sorted out case by case, usually after the birth.
• It didn’t settle who may use surrogacy. No law addresses it.

What the Court said in 2024

In T-127/2024 the Constitutional Court found “un vacío legal en la materia”, a legal vacuum that leaves the rights of the children involved under-protected. It repeated its call for Congress to regulate surrogacy and urged the Ministry of Justice to present a bill. Congress could choose “to prohibit it, permit it freely or limit it to specific circumstances” (T-127/2024; Cambio).

Where things stand now

Congress hasn’t regulated surrogacy. In August 2026 a bill was filed to prohibit it, with prison terms of 120 to 192 months. It was in committee as of early October 2026. The full legal update covers the bill, how parentage works in practice, and what to ask a lawyer.

Sources

1. Sentencia T-968/2009, Corte Constitucional de Colombia (Dec. 18, 2009)
2. Concepto No. 23, ICBF Oficina Asesora Jurídica (June 1, 2020), quoting the T-968/2009 list of recommended conditions
3. Sentencia T-127/2024, Corte Constitucional de Colombia (Apr. 18, 2024)
4. Reiteración de exhorto para la regulación sobre la gestación subrogada (Universidad Externado, May 27, 2024)
5. Corte lanza dura advertencia por falta de reglas claras sobre la maternidad subrogada (Cambio, May 7, 2024)
6. Tribunal Superior de Bogotá, Sala Civil, ruling of Apr. 1, 2025, case 2025-00072-01
7. Maternidad subrogada: cascada de demandas refleja ‘boom’ del turismo reproductivo (El Tiempo, July 12, 2025)
8. Cuando seas grande no recordarás que naciste en un país extranjero (Cuestión Pública, Apr. 23, 2026)
9. Prohibición de la maternidad subrogada, Proyecto de Ley Estatutaria 215/2026 Cámara (status page) and bill text
10. PL 131/2025 Cámara (archived) and PL 052/2026 Cámara (withdrawn)

Last checked October 6, 2026. General information, not legal advice.