§ 14-19-01 — Definitions

In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
1. "Birthing hospital" means a hospital licensed under chapter 23-16 which provides
obstetrical services.
2. "Department" means the department of health and human services.
3. "Donor" means a woman whose body produced an egg for the purposes of assisted
conception but does not include a woman whose body produces an egg used for the
purpose of conceiving a child for that woman.
4. "Gestational carrier" means a woman who enters into an agreement to have an
embryo implanted in her and bear the resulting child for intended parents, when the
embryo is conceived by using the egg and sperm of the intended parents.
5. "Married woman" includes a woman who attempted to marry by a marriage
solemnized in apparent compliance with law, although the attempted marriage is or
could be declared invalid.
6. "Mother" means a woman who gives birth to a child or, if pregnancy resulted from
assisted conception, the woman who is the donor but not the woman who is the
gestational carrier.
7. "Party" means the man with whom the relationship of father and child is sought or
established, the child's mother, and, for purposes of proceedings to relieve a party of
the relationship of father and child, the child.
8. "Relationship of father and child" means the legal relationship existing between a
father and the father's natural or adoptive child incident to which the law confers or
imposes rights, privileges, duties, and obligations.
9. "Voluntary paternity establishment service entity" means the department of health and
human services and any child support agency, as that term is defined in section
14-09-09.10.