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Saturday, January 29, 2011
Law - "In the Age of Alternative Reproduction, Who Are a Child's Parents?"
So asks attorney Liz Mandarano in an article in the Huffington Post today. The article includes "A sample of notable state laws and judicial rulings in the past few years reflect how unsettled, inconsistent and controversial the question of parentage is." Two samples:
In Michigan, a married couple with fertility issues contracted with a surrogate mother, who had acted as a surrogate for three other children previously for other women. The resultant twins were produced by fertilizing an egg and a sperm from anonymous donors, so no party shared any DNA with the children. Upon hearing that the wife had a psychological disorder, the surrogate decided to object to legal transfer at the required guardianship hearing. The court sided with the surrogate because Michigan strongly opposes surrogacy contracts and, in fact, deems such contracts as a crime punishable by up to five years in prison as well as fines. * * *The Indiana case is Paternity of R.; T.G. and V.G. v. State of Indiana - see the Feb. 10, 2010 ILB entry here and this one from Jan. 28, 2010.In Indiana, the Court of Appeals reversed a trial court's ruling that the legal mother of a child was a non-related surrogate. In that case, a married couple enlisted the wife's sister to carry her child as a gestational surrogate. The court remanded the case back to the trial court with instructions to conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine motherhood based on biological, not gestational relationship. Unlike Michigan, the fact that Indiana law does not recognize the validity of surrogacy agreements was basically ignored.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 29, 2011 11:51 AM
Posted to General Law Related