Photograph of Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for the Tribeca Film Festival.
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A surrogate mother gave birth to twin girls for actors Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker in Ohio on Monday. The celebrity parents are ready to take the newborns home and leave the birth mother in the Rust Belt. Does the surrogate have any rights now that the children are born?
Not if they used Parker's eggs. Surrogate mothers who are not genetically related to the child have had little success in obtaining any kind of parental rights. But surrogacy is an enormously complicated and unsettled area of law, and different states take different approaches. In surrogacy-friendly states, like Ohio and California, a judge issues an order, either before or immediately after the delivery, recognizing the genetic parents as the legal guardians, and directs the hospital to do the same. As part of the process, the surrogate normally waives any right to contest custody. In other states, the intended mother may have to go through an adoption procedure. Still, as long as the surrogate is onboard, any state will eventually grant custody to the intended parents. Once legal parenthood is established, the surrogate has no legal relationship to the child—not even visitation rights.
(Read the rest of this article at Slate.)
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Comments
Who else feels uncomfortable
By: Sisi | Thu, 07/02/2009 - 12:42
Who else feels uncomfortable at the idea of renting the wombs of other women for the purpose of gestating a baby?
As someone who is unable to have children naturally on her own I can empathize with the situation many women are in, but it seems like exploitation to me. I can only imagine that most surrogates are desperate for the money and whether the child is hers genetically or not how can she not get attached to the children?
And what about the idea of never seeing them again, or in this case seeing them in tabloids... but never in the flesh.
There are so many children in the world without homes. Brangelina are a bit flamboyant but they have at least made it "cool" to adopt.... And to adopt children who don't look like them. A child is a child whether or not they share your DNA... They are all equally in need of love and care.
is it me???
By: paultunes | Sun, 06/28/2009 - 18:47
if SJ Parker couldn't be bothered to be pregnant for 9 months why would she want a kid for 18 years??? is she unable to have kids??? what about doing the Brangelina thing?
The tabloids have been
By: LadyR | Sat, 06/27/2009 - 19:12
The tabloids have been divorcing them time and again for years now but they keep on going strong.
I'm surprised to learn that there are not more surrogacy-friendly states, seeing it seems to be an option that the surrogate mother can waive her rights which are probably agreed upon terms before the baby is born in most cases.