Posted on 12/30/2012 5:39:04 AM PST by billorites
Topekan William Marotta sought only to become a sperm donor — but now the state of Kansas is trying to have him declared a father.
Nearly four years ago, Marotta donated sperm in a plastic cup to a lesbian couple after responding to an ad they had placed on Craigslist.
Marotta and the women, Topekans Angela Bauer and Jennifer Schreiner, signed an agreement holding him harmless for support of the child, a daughter Schreiner bore after being artificially inseminated.
But the Kansas Department for Children and Families is now trying to have Marotta declared the 3-year-old girl’s father and forced to pay child support. The case is scheduled for a Jan. 8 hearing in Shawnee County District Court.
Hannah Schroller, the attorney defending Marotta, said the case has intriguing social and reproductive rights implications.
She said Marotta, a mechanic who has taken care of foster children with his wife, Kimberly, answered a Craigslist ad placed by Bauer and Schreiner seeking a sperm donor in March 2009.
In an email to Marotta that is part of court records, Bauer described herself and Schreiner as a “financially stable lesbian couple,” with Bauer working outside the home and Schreiner being a stay-at-home mom with their other children.
“We are foster and adoptive parents and now we desire to share a pregnancy and birth together,” Bauer wrote.
Marotta responded in an email that he was 43 years old, 6 feet 1 inches tall and weighed 205 pounds, reasonably fit and in good health, with blond hair and blue eyes.
Marotta, Bauer and Schreiner each signed an agreement saying he would be paid $50 per semen donation, with the arrangement including a clear understanding that he would have no parental rights whatsoever with the child or children.
The agreement also called for Bauer and Schreiner to hold Marotta harmless “for any child support payments demanded of him by any other person or entity, public or private, including any district attorney’s office or other state or county agency, regardless of the circumstances or said demand.”
Schroller said that after consulting with his wife, Marotta decided to donate free of charge rather than taking the $50.
She said Marotta subsequently received periodic email updates on the child after her birth but hasn’t had much contact with Schreiner and Bauer. The Topeka Capital-Journal was unable to reach the women Friday.
On Oct. 3, attorney Mark McMillan filed a petition on behalf of the Department of Children and Families seeking a ruling that Marotta is the father of Schreiner’s child and owes a duty to support her. It said the department provided cash assistance totaling $189 for the girl for July through September 2012 and had paid medical expenses totaling $5,884.96.
Schroller, an attorney with Topeka-based Swinnen & Associates, said the state became involved after the mother fell on hard times and applied for financial assistance through the state.
She said of Schreiner: “My understanding is that after being pressed on paternity of the child, she gave them William’s name as a sperm donor. The state then filed this suit to determine paternity.”
Angela de Rocha, spokeswoman for the Department for Children and Families, said Friday that Kansas law prevented her from commenting on the case.
On Oct. 24, Schroller filed a motion to dismiss the case.
McMillan responded in a motion filed Nov. 1 that the hold harmless agreement between Marotta, Bauer and Schreiner was moot because it didn’t meet the primary requirement of Kansas statute 23-2208(f) that Schreiner have a licensed physician perform the artificial insemination.
Marotta signed an affidavit in September saying he had no reason to believe a medical professional wouldn’t carry out the artificial insemination using the semen specimen he provided.
Schroller replied in a court document filed Dec. 20 that her case was consistent with “In Re K.M.H.,” a 2007 case in which the Kansas Supreme Court denied parental rights to a man who sought them after providing a sperm donation under similar circumstances. A licensed physician performed the insemination in the 2007 case, in which the donor was Topekan Daryl Hendrix, but no physicians apparently were involved in Marotta’s case.
Still, Schroller wrote that Marotta took the same actions as the man in the 2007 case did, and he — like that man — should be considered a sperm donor, not a father.
She stressed that sperm banks regularly ship sperm donations for the intended purpose of artificial insemination within the United States and abroad to both residential and medical facility addresses.
Schroller wrote: “If, as the petitioner alleges, the use of a licensed physician is a primary requirement of K.S.A. 23-2208(f), then any woman in Kansas could have sperm donations shipped to her house, inseminate herself without a licensed physician and seek out the donor for financial support because her actions made him a father, not a sperm donor. This goes against the very purpose of the statute to protect sperm donors as well as birth mothers.”
exactly, one bad idea leads to the next one
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when she grows up it’ll be too late
Ask Chastity Bono when the optimal age to be introduced into lesbianism is? For her nanny it was 11.... same age that NYC mandates the pro-sex sex-ed course..... coincidence?
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He should have seen a lawyer...or have the lesbians pay for his legal consultation. The lawyer would have told him no!!!
Agree.....as was his wife, and the two lesbians.
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry."
Then I would have to disagree. A straight, infertile couple of good character is better than dykes or homos raising kids.
He should have put a label on the Container, intended only for use as a Topical Ointment or Energy Drink.
True. In which case they can formally adopt the child and the problem will be solved. But this idea that you're going to go spreading your seed around and because things weren't done in the natural way you get off responsibility scot-free doesn't jibe with my notions of social rectitude.
Since this obviously hinges on the question of reproductive rights the answer is obvious. Employers must provide child support insurance for all women they employ without any copay being required.
The State of Kansas does not care about the private agreement between parties it cares that they forked over money and now have found a way to recover that money.
I disagree. The plethora of laws that now bind us have made us all criminals. Who can possibly know them?
He’s fool enough to take the word of these women he met on Craig’s List
This country was built on that sort of trust [don't lecture me about lesbians, I'm talking about trust between individuals] and overweaning government is destroying that.
The law should be explicit: If you are the father of a child, you have no rights to the child, unless the mother and/or state give them to you. You have all responsibilities unless the mother and/or state don’t require them. That way, everyone knows up front.
The sexual orientation of the women is irrelevant to me, so don’t presume to tell me not to “lecture” you. This was simply “real world” stupid. One must deal with the world as it is, not as one thinks it should be.
Yes. But not being a lawyer should not be a penalty. Are you a lawyer? Why are you fighting me on this point:?
No, I’m not a lawyer, but I know what kinds of things I wouldn’t do without a lawyer - and spreading my DNA around outside of my own family is way up there on that list.
I agree with you on that point. I just think the man is being treated unjustly.
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