Surrogacy agreements pose biotech quandary for courts; two state courts address novel issues in gestational surrogacy contracts. One looks to adoption law, the other to intent

Article Abstract:

R.R. v. M.H., decided by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, concerned the validity of a surrogacy agreement between a biological father and a biological mother, while In re Marriage of Buzzanca, decided by the California Court of Appeal, concerned the custody of a child conceived with the help of a gestational surrogate. The child was conceived before the parents' divorce, and after the breakup was left without legal parents. For the Buzzanca court intent to parent outweighs status-based biological ties in surrogate parent situations.

California, Massachusetts, Parent and child (Law), Surrogate motherhood

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Some things don't belong in contracts

Article Abstract:

The Kass couple contracted while married to donate their frozen embryos produced while trying to have a child to science in the event of a disagreement, and New York's highest court ruled after the couple divorced that simple contract doctrine governed litigation which ensued concerning the ex-wife's desire to have another implantation procedure and the ex-husband's objections. Contract principles are, however, not wise tools for disputes over frozen human embryos, and the New York Task Force on Likfe and the Law proposed other options.

Fertilization in vitro, Human, Human fertilization in vitro, Frozen human embryos, New York (State), states

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Gay parents ruled fit; increasingly, courts are holding that sexual orientation per se cannot be used to preclude granting custody to a parent

Article Abstract:

Homosexual parents are increasingly considered by courts as fit to raise their children as the courts find that presumptions of unfitness prove inaccurate. Most courts are moving away from the 'per se' approach that deems homosexuality a presumption of unfitness, and toward a 'nexus' approach that considers how the parent's homosexuality influences the child. Research shows that lesbian women and heterosexual ones raise children in very similar ways, and that gay parents' children are not much likelier to be harassed.

United States, Gay parents

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