The Nation - News from Nov. 13, 1987

Mary Beth Whitehead, who lost her bid to keep the child she bore under a surrogate mother contract in the landmark Baby M case, was divorced from Richard Whitehead, 37, her husband of nearly 14 years. The 30-year-old woman plans to marry Dean Gould, a New York City accountant with whom she is living and whose baby she is carrying. The uncontested divorce was granted by Superior Court Judge Mark B. Epstein after a brief court hearing in New Brunswick, N.J. Whitehead sparked a debate over surrogate parenting when she refused to turn over the child she had agreed to bear through artificial insemination under a $10,000 contract for William and Elizabeth Stern of Tenafly. Superior Court Judge Harvey R. Sorkow ruled in March the contract was valid and awarded custody to the Sterns.