Surrogate Mother Trial Opens in San Diego : Case of 8-Month-Old Girl Could Result in First State Rulings on Issue

A San Diego County woman testified in court Wednesday that she and her husband believed that they were being blackmailed by a Mexican woman who agreed to serve as a surrogate mother, moved in with them and bore a child.

On the opening day of a civil trial to decide the fate of 8-month-old Lydia Michelle Haro, Natty Haro of Chula Vista claimed that the woman agreed initially to bear the child “as a favor,” then began demanding money.

“We told her that we felt we were being blackmailed,” Haro, 37, recalled, saying she made the statement to the surrogate, Alejandra Munoz, 21, through a woman acting as an intermediary. Haro said relatives, a doctor and a lawyer, called her before Munoz went to court and urged her to pay.

The case, which began late last year when Munoz sued to regain custody of the child, could result in the first California court rulings on such issues as the legality of surrogate mother agreements and who should have custody when parties to such pacts disagree.

Munoz, who speaks no English, claims that she was misled by the Haros and a mutual aunt into agreeing to serve as surrogate. Her lawyer says she was told that her fertilized ovum would be transferred into Natty Haro’s womb in the early stages of pregnancy.

Mario and Natty Haro, a high school math and science teacher and a bank employee respectively, contend that Munoz agreed willingly to bear the child as a favor. Their lawyer claims that an oral contract was in effect and that Munoz breached it by going to court.

The case differs sharply from the New Jersey surrogate mother case of Baby M in that Munoz and the Haros worked out their agreement without the lawyers, doctors and psychological counselors increasingly involved in surrogate mother agreements.

Instead, an aunt of both Natty Haro and Munoz, who are second cousins but had never met, brought Munoz north from a small village outside Mazatlan, Mexico, in September, 1985, to be a surrogate mother for the Haros, who could not have children.

The Haros met Munoz twice in one week at the aunt’s house in Tijuana before Munoz was brought illegally across the border. She moved in with the Haros, artificially inseminated herself with Mario Haro’s sperm and gave birth to Lydia Michelle on June 25, 1986.

The only written agreement in the case is a two-sentence pact hand-written in Spanish and signed six weeks into Munoz’s pregnancy. In it, Natty Haro agreed to pay Munoz 840,000 pesos (at the time about $1,500) and Munoz agreed to relinquish all rights to the child.

The Haros’ lawyer refers to the agreement as a contract. Munoz’s lawyer calls it a memorandum.

“You need at least minimum safeguards,” said Munoz’s lawyer, Harvey Berman, who contends that surrogate contracts cannot be unsupervised. “You cannot treat a child as chattel and contract it away without the judicial system, attorneys, doctors and social services being involved.”

Merle Schneidewind, lawyer for the Haros, countered Wednesday: “I don’t think the court has any business in the bedroom. I think (surrogate motherhood) is an easy process, and people should be allowed to do it.”

Late last year, Juvenile Court Judge William Pate ruled that there is no constitutional prohibition against surrogate mother contracts in general. Now he must decide whether there is a contract in this case and whether it is binding.

On Wednesday, Natty Haro, who is Mexican and has lived in the United States for 25 years, testified that she has an 18-year-old daughter from a previous marriage but that two ectopic pregnancies in 1978 left her unable to conceive.

She said she and Mario Haro, who married four years ago, had tried in vitro fertilization several times. In 1985, she said, they mentioned to her aunt in Tijuana, Alejandra Mendoza, that a doctor had told them that it would be dangerous to try to conceive again.

Both the Haros testified that they never raised the subject of a surrogate and were unaware that such a thing as an ovum transfer existed. They said that the aunt said simply she would help them and that two months later she turned up with Munoz and Munoz’s 1-year-old daughter.

Natty Haro said she agreed to go along with what she said was her aunt’s proposal because “we thought that since it was going to be his genes, and my aunt said this was a cousin of mine, I thought this child would be almost like my own family.”

She said the first difficulties occurred in early November, when Munoz threatened to abort the fetus.

“She told us that if we didn’t give her $5,000, she could easily take the child away and sell it somewhere else,” Natty Haro testified. “We explained we didn’t have that amount. We discussed the amount we could give her.”

That produced the agreement that Munoz would receive $1,500. Shortly after Munoz gave birth, however, the Haros received a letter from Angela Garcia, Natty Haro’s half-sister, saying that they should pay Munoz $5,000, Natty Haro testified. In August, she testified, she and her husband offered a total of $3,500, but Munoz would not accept it.

For the time being, Pate has given custody of the child to the Haros and visitation rights to Munoz three times a week. Munoz lives in a studio apartment in National City with her other daughter. Garcia and other supporters have agreed to pay the $150 rent and food bills.