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              Thanks to Hulagway for permission to use this Photo.

Various issues arise as the concept of surrogacy comes before the legislatures of the country.  One case that I handled for the Attorney General’s Office dealt with a surrogate mother, and is an example of how crazy surrogacy issues can become.  This lady had been hired to have a baby for a multi-millionaire.  He was not married and seemed to be tiring of his fortunes when he decided that he would like to have an heir.  The surrogate mother gave birth to a healthy little girl and the man accepted the child, made payment, and went on his merry way.  Then two months later, the man had one of his “assistants” drop the baby back off at the surrogate mother’s home with a note stating that he simply could not emotionally handle the responsibilities of being a parent. 

We received the case because the surrogate mother was now going after the biological father for child-support payments.  This was one case where our heads were spinning every time we dealt with it.  The surrogate mother never wanted to have a child of her own and was simply interested in making some money when she agreed to the surrogacy contract.  After receiving the baby back, however, she did not have the heart to give the child up for adoption, and developed an appreciation for motherhood.  The court held that the biological father DID have a duty to support the child and awarded the mother $1700 a week in support, due to the biological father’s extreme wealth. 

That case has definitely been recorded in the storybook of child support and surrogacy, as well.  It is a fun story to tell, while at the same time it illuminates how obscure the issues can become in the area of surrogacy contracts. 

Wendy Webb
Family Law Instructor
Ashworth University School of Legal Studies

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 6:56 am and is filed under Witnesses, Trials, Justice, Law Practice Mgt., Family Law, Legal Rights, Lawyers, Evidence, Reform, Crime, Careers, Laws, Ethics, Court System. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.