Surrogate Mother Granted More Time With Her Daughter

A Mexican woman embroiled in a bitterly contested surrogate motherhood case has been granted a dramatic expansion of her rights to visit the 16-month-old child she bore for a Chula Vista couple.

Under an agreement approved Wednesday by Superior Court Judge William C. Pate, Alejandra Munoz will have “what amounts to roughly equal custody” of young Lydia Michelle Haro, according to attorney Gregory Marshall, who represents Munoz on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Marshall said the agreement provides that Munoz, 21, will care for the child on weekdays and overnight on Thursdays. Mario Haro, the baby’s father, and his wife Nattie, who is a second cousin to Munoz, will have custody of the girl at their home on the remaining nights and on weekends.

Pate directed the visitation arrangement to remain in effect until Lydia Michelle turns 3 years old, when the court will reevaluate the situation.

“This agreement really provides for quite an increase in Alejandra’s rights,” Marshall said Thursday. “We’re very pleased. It allows her to be with Lydia Michelle during most of her waking hours. It allows her to truly function as the child’s mother.”

In an interview, Munoz, who works in a fast-food restaurant and could face deportation to Mexico in April, said she was overjoyed with the increase in her visitation privileges.

‘I Feel Very Happy’

“I feel very happy,” said Munoz, who speaks only Spanish. “This is what I thought should have happened from the beginning. She’s my child. She needs to be with her mother and sister.”

Haro, a high school science teacher, could not be reached for comment. But Nattie Haro said the couple is devastated by the judge’s decision and fears the custody arrangement will harm the child’s emotional and psychological development.

“There has been a lot of evidence provided and a lot of testimony from psychologists that overnight visits are out of the question for a child until age 3,” said Nattie Haro, a bank employee. “But the judge didn’t listen. I don’t think he really cares about what’s best for Lydia.”

Nattie Haro said her daughter has exhibited “cues” that she believes indicate the girl is experiencing trauma because of the frequent separations from her permanent home.

“When she comes back, she is very detached for awhile,” Nattie Haro said. “She doesn’t play, she doesn’t smile. She is quiet . . . it takes her three hours to get back to normal. I think this is tearing her apart.”

The origins of the case, one of the first of its kind in California, date to 1985, when Nattie Haro’s aunt suggested that Munoz serve as a surrogate mother for the couple, who were unable to have children.

The Haros subsequently arranged to have Munoz and her young daughter, Nayeli, smuggled across the border from a small village near Mazatlan. Munoz moved into the Haros’ home, artificially inseminated herself with Haro’s sperm, and gave birth to Lydia Michelle on June 25, 1986.

The Haros argue that Munoz willingly consented to bear the child as a favor. But Munoz insists the couple initially told her the fertilized ovum would be transplanted into Mrs. Haro’s womb and then reneged, later persuading her to sign an agreement relinquishing all rights to the child in return for $1,500.

Initially, the Haros fought to retain sole custody of Lydia Michelle. But, in a surprise move, they suddenly abandoned their quest in February, explaining that they did not want to further strain family relations.

Since that decision, the issue of visitation rights has remained a sore point between the two parties. During the early stages of the custody battle, Judge Pate ruled that Lydia Michelle’s primary residence would be with the Haros and allowed Munoz to visit the child three times a week at the couple’s home, under the supervision of an attorney representing the child.

In May, however, those visitation rights were cut off after the child’s attorney filed a court motion protesting that the shared custody arrangement was harming the baby emotionally. At a hearing in June, Pate restored the thrice-weekly visits. A month later, he altered the visits to allow Munoz to keep the baby overnight once a week and spend one four-hour visit weekly at the Haros’ home.

At issue in the debate over visitation rights has been the effect that shared custody may have on Lydia Michelle. The Haros and Marlene Allen, the court-appointed attorney representing the baby, maintain that frequent separations--particularly overnight stays with Munoz--would be detrimental to her development.

Allen said Richard Trumbull, a psychologist agreed to by all parties in the case, testified that a child under 3 years of age needs the stability of a primary home and a primary parenting figure.

“The professionals who know this stuff agree that without question, a child this young should not be split in custody,” Allen said. “All this shuttling back and forth is tough enough on older kids. For young ones--who look up from a crib and one day it’s blue and the next day it’s green--there can be some real emotional damage done.”

Allen said she was disappointed that the court “did not follow the advice of the experts, who made it very clear this was not in the child’s best interest. My feeling is he felt sorry for the mother and wanted to rectify problems of the past.”

Attorneys for Munoz, however, countered that research about the potential impacts of separation on young children remains inconclusive.

“You just can’t interfere with people’s fundamental rights on the basis of some abstract theory,” Marshall said. “This decision was the correct one, legally, in the absence of some kind of facts that harm is coming to the child or in the absence of some more or less universal agreement among experts.”

Still unresolved is the issue of Munoz’s immigration status. In a dramatic turn of events in April, the top-ranking official of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in California called Munoz the victim of a “con” and agreed to extend her stay in this country for a year. INS officials said they may consider another extension at the year’s end.

The visitation arrangement granted Munoz is significantly better than the privileges accorded Mary Beth Whitehead, a New Jersey woman attempting to gain custody of a baby she bore under a $10,000 surrogate contract. Whitehead, who was stripped of her parental rights and is appealing the case to the New Jersey Supreme Court, is allowed two-hour supervised visits with “Baby M” once a week.

Meanwhile, a congressional subcommittee is considering a bill by Rep. Thomas A. Luken (D-Ohio) that would make it a crime for individuals and third-party brokers to enter into surrogate motherhood contracts for money. Both Munoz and Whitehead have testified at the hearings.

Times staff writer Patrick McDonnell contributed to this story.