Lesbian egg donor has no parental rights according to California court

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | May 12, 2004 | Bob Egelko

[Cracker72]

A state appellate court pondered the claims of two women to be mothers of the same children -- one donated the eggs, the other carried them to term, and both raised the twins together -- and decided the birth mother was the only intended legal parent.

In a ruling made public Tuesday, the Court of Appeal panel in San Francisco applied principles from a decade-old surrogate-motherhood case and said the deciding factor was the couple's intent before birth. Despite acting as a co-parent for most of the children's lives, the egg donor had agreed, both orally and in writing, that her now-ex-partner would be their mother, the court said.

"Functioning as a parent does not bestow legal status as a parent,'' said Justice Mark Simons in the 3-0 ruling. The pre-birth agreement, which included a written waiver at a medical clinic, could have been undone only by a formal adoption, he said.

[cmsgop]

I usually buy "Egg-lands Best" myself.......

[martin_fierro]

< sound of trombone playing "wuh-wuh" >

[connectthedots]

The court got this one right.

[vikingchick]

I know, don't tell me.....if they were allowed to get married, this would never have happened.

[BossLady]

There are ways of making parental rights legalized without marriage. I have friends (hetero) who have kids who are not legally married and they had paperwork drawn up to reflect parental rights as well as property etc rights. So, I know that being married is not the 'end-all-be-all' in these cases.

(I'm not making a judgement on marriage, itself, just saying there are ways of making things legal and binding without marriage.)

[SouthCarolinaKit]

Don't read SFO so, are they splitting up? Is there a
sperm involved and does that donor have any say? What a world, no wonder we've got kids behaving as they have in the Iraqi prison. There's no shame for anything, no respect for anything; thanks to anti-God government schools and the over self-esteeming our kids. They think they can do anything with no consequences. Thanks also to the rotton junk on TV, horrible rap song lyrics, worthless cinema. Liberals get what they want: a weakened America.

[Sacajaweau]

Looks more like "farming" relations rather than human relations.

[Sacajaweau]

Maybe men will wise up one of these days and boycott the sperm banks.

[Balto_Boy]

Men would also have to boycott, or at least limit, casual sex, but the accepted concept of "manhood" won't allow that.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Yeah, ok so who's paying child support?

[Salman]

Proposed terminology for the Brave New World:

Mother -- She who carries the baby in her womb.
Father -- A supplier of genetic material who does not carry the baby in a womb.

This new terminology has the benefit of fitting both the old and the new situation. The old situation you are familiar with.

In the new situation, the egg donor and the sperm donor are thereby both fathers, and the womb donor is the mother.

Let's parse the assertion that Heather has two "mommies".

Heather has two fathers and a mother. One father is male and absent. The other father is female and a "mommy". The mother is the other "mommy". And no "daddy".

Likewise consider the situation where a gay male couple get one woman to be an egg donor, another woman to be a "surrogate" (womb donor for hire), and one of the gay men donates his sperm.

Heather has two "daddies", one of whom is her father. Heather has two fathers, one of whom is a "daddy", the other father is female and absent. Heather has a mother who is absent. And no "mommy".

All clear now? OY!

[11th Earl of Mar]

Lesbian egg donor?

Who would ever donate a lesbian egg?

And how would you know its sexual preference?

[vikingchick]

The article doesn't mention a sperm donor, (there must have been one), but does say the lesbian couple has broken up, and that one of them had birthed twin girls, but used the egg from the other one to make the babies.