In Germany, cases of surrogate motherhood emerged in the 1980s, which sometimes led to legal disputes. Legal regulations can be found in the Adoption Mediation Act and the Embryo Protection Act. The former penalizes mediation, while the latter imposes criminal sanctions on the participating doctor. Additionally, according to § 1591 of the German Civil Code (BGB), only the woman who gives birth is considered the mother of the child. This effectively makes motherhood for others largely impossible in Germany. The work attempts to highlight the need for reforms to the restrictive situation in Germany. Possible approaches for a more open legal regulation are to be derived from the experiences of other countries. To this end, the legal situation in Australia, South Africa, the USA, and Israel is examined.