Custody Dispute Over Baby : Judge Gives Surrogate Mother Visitation Rights

A 20-year-old Mexican woman who served as a surrogate mother and is now suing for custody can visit the 3-month-old infant twice a week until permanent custody rights are determined, a judge ruled on Thursday.

The woman, Alejandra Munoz, entered the United States illegally last year and gave birth in June to a girl after she was artificially inseminated. San Diego Superior Court Judge William C. Pate ruled that she can visit the infant Mondays and Fridays for six hours each day.

Pate ordered the woman and Mario and Nattie Haro back to court Nov. 18 for a custody hearing. Mario Haro is the father of the girl, Lydia Michelle, and he and his wife have reared the child since it was born, according to their attorney, Merle N. Schneidewind.

Harvey Berman, Munoz’s attorney, said his client and the Haros, who live in Chula Vista, are second cousins.

“Kiss her and hug her a lot,” Munoz said through an interpretor when asked what she would do when she visited her daughter.

Nattie Haro said outside the courtroom that she feared Munoz would attempt to flee the country with the child, who she said has grown attached to her. “She did not grow in my stomach, but she grew in my heart,” Mrs. Haro said.

The judge’s ruling came after Berman had sought to have the court rule that the Haros must share custody of the child with Munoz or give Munoz sole custody. The attorney also is seeking child support from Mario Haro.

Schneidewind, who is seeking to win sole custody of the child for the Haros, said after the hearing that he agreed to allow Munoz to visit the child after Pate informed him that he was not willing to delay the case unless both sides agreed on visitation rights.

Thursday’s ruling is the latest twist to a case that both sides agree boils down to a surrogate motherhood agreement that went awry.

Schneidewind said the Haros, both in their 30s, contacted an aunt who lives in Tijuana to arrange for Munoz to serve as a surrogate mother for their child. The decison was made because Nattie Haro, the mother of one grown child, is unable to have more children, he said.

According to the attorney, his clients reached an agreement with Munoz, who lives near Mazatlan, calling for her to come to the United States and be impregnated artificially with Mario Haro’s sperm. She agreed to live with the Haros until the baby was born, with the couple paying all medical and living expenses, he said.

Schneidewind said that, two months into Munoz’s pregnancy, Munoz told the couple that she was going to have an abortion unless they agreed to pay her some money, and the Haros then signed a contract stipulating that she would get about $1,500 to $2,000, he said.

But sometime after the child was born, Munoz demanded that she be paid $5,000, Schneidewind said, and she later changed her mind again and informed them she was going to seek full custody of the child.

Berman, however, said that his client had agreed to become artificially impregnated but was told that three or four weeks into the pregnancy an embryo transplant would be performed so she would not have to carry the baby for nine months. When that did not occur, he said, Munoz became emotionally attached to the child and decided she did not want to give it up.

“My client does not want the money,” Berman said. “She does not want a million dollars.”

On Thursday, an attorney was appointed to represent the baby. The attorney, or a representative of the attorney, must be present when Munoz takes the baby to visit with her.