OK, let me get this straight....
Camden County, New Jersey, Two years ago. A man and his wife wanted a baby. But the wife was infertile.
So, They use a donated egg, along with the fathers sperm, and in a laboratory, they managed to inseminate the egg... They then pay for a surrogate mother to have this egg implanted, and give birth to the child, said surrogate waving all legal rights to the child. This elaborate procedure successfully produced a healthy baby boy.
Now the question is... who's the mother? The wife got her name on the birth certificate, preparing ahead of time, getting legal statements and having a family court sign off on it.
However, The state registrar is balking, as she is neither the carrier of the child, or the egg donor (neither of whom claim the child in any way). The registrar have a SECOND birth certificate created, with the mother listed as blank.
The wife is fighting this... her best argument lies in pointing out that in the now commonplace case of artificial insemination, the husband of the wife is legally the father, regardless of the DNA of the sperm, and this should be the same in the case of a donated egg. It's still in court.
And people wonder why I stopped reading fiction.
The state registrar is out of line here.
ReplyDeleteTo me, as long as the egg donor and the gestational surrogate have waived all claim, this is a done deal. If the egg donor or the gestational surrogate wanted to cause a fuss, the courts might have to look into it, but it is NOT the registrar's place to make that kind of judgment call.