The Nation : Baby M Case Appeal OKd

The New Jersey Supreme Court agreed to hear surrogate mother Mary Beth Whitehead’s appeal of the ruling that stripped her of all parental rights to the daughter she bore under a $10,000 contract. By deciding to take up the Baby M case directly, the state’s highest court is allowing Whitehead to bypass the Appellate Division of Superior Court. The court also agreed to consider her lawyer’s request for a stay of the March 31 decision by Superior Court Judge Harvey R. Sorkow that stripped Whitehead of her parental rights and awarded the child to the biological father, William Stern.