Baby M’s Mother Splits With Mate, Blames Stress

Surrogate mother Mary Beth Whitehead, who was stripped of her parental rights to the child she bore under contract, has separated from her husband, her attorney said today.

“Mrs. Whitehead believes that the extraordinary stress placed upon her marriage and the public discussion of private matters rendered Mr. and Mrs. Whitehead’s marriage an inevitable casualty of this unusual case,” lawyer Harold Cassidy said in the statement.

In a landmark court case, Whitehead, 30, was stripped of her parental rights when a state judge ruled in March that the contract she had signed with William and Elizabeth Stern was valid.

Under the $10,000 contract, the Brick Township homemaker had agreed to be artificially inseminated with the sperm of Stern and bear him and his wife a child. When the child--known as Baby M--was born March 27, 1986, however, Whitehead changed her mind about the deal and fled to Florida, where she remained until authorities tracked her down and returned the baby to the Sterns.

Her decision to back out of the deal set the stage for the custody suit filed by the Sterns.

During the trial, Whitehead argued that she and her husband, Richard, could offer as stable and loving a home for the baby as the Sterns.

An attorney for the Sterns, Edward O’Donnell, said he was sorry about the separation but that it supported his case.

“During the course of the trial, we submitted proofs indicating that the Whitehead family suffered from instability and particularly marital friction. What we’ve just learned confirmed those proofs,” he said.

The case is under appeal to the New Jersey Supreme Court.