Hillyard also said that a letter from the Utah chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union had raised concerns about the bill, including whether or not surrogate mothers should have the same rights as mothers surrendering their children for adoption.

Those women have 24 hours after a birth to change their minds about giving up the child, but surrogate contracts would eliminate that right.

The ACLU also questioned the constitutionality of limiting contracts to married couples and questioned how the courts would determine a woman's medical status was significant enough to warrant surrogacy.

Hillyard dismissed their concerns, saying, "They haven't read the bill."

Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, voted to support the bill, but indicated that he had concerns. After the debate, Valentine said he thinks the bill is legally sound, but that his concerns are about its moral implications.

"I think it's happening already," Hillyard said, "I think we need to do something or we leave it to the courts to decide."

Another element of the bill protects the rights of "social parents," such as stepparents who are not biologically connected to children, but nonetheless, have established, significant relationships. Under the bill, social parents could not be legally prevented from seeing a child even when the relationship between the adults ends.

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E-mail: jdobner@desnews.com