Surrogate Told to Stop Daily Visits : Ruling: A Superior Court judge limits Anna L. Johnson’s visits with her birth baby after finding that her presence in the Calvert household caused tension.

Surrogate mother Anna L. Johnson lost the right Thursday to daily visits with the baby she bore for an infertile couple after a judge found that the tension during visits to the couple’s home was harmful to the infant.

Superior Court Judge Richard N. Parslow Jr. also said that Mark and Crispina Calvert, the couple who hired Johnson for $10,000 to carry their embryo, could keep the little boy until another hearing in the landmark case on Oct. 9. Johnson may continue her monitored visits to their home, but the judge limited the visits to twice a week.

“Lord willing, this is the beginning of the end,” Mark Calvert said.

Johnson’s lawyer, Richard C. Gilbert, who had pledged to ask the state appeals court to place the baby with Johnson, said Thursday he would wait instead for the outcome of the next hearing. Johnson has been visiting the baby daily since Saturday, the day after she agreed the infant could stay temporarily with the Calverts.

Parslow reduced the number of visits Thursday after the baby’s court-appointed guardian, William G. Steiner, testified that the child would be better off if Johnson did not visit every day because of the strained relations between Johnson and the Calverts.

“I believe the tensions in the household are being transferred to the baby,” Steiner said.

Steiner, executive director of a foundation that raises money to help abused and neglected children, said that he believes Johnson “does feel a special relationship with this child and that relationship has to be recognized and understood.” But for the time being, he said, the stress created by her visits must be minimized for the sake of the child, who was born on Sept. 19.

Attorneys in the case are already looking to the Oct. 9 hearing as pivotal in the unique test-tube triangle dispute. That is when Parslow will be asked to step into uncharted legal waters and decide who the baby’s legal parents are.

Johnson, 29, backed out of the surrogate birth contract, claiming that the Calverts neglected her during pregnancy. She is the first surrogate mother to seek custody of a child who has no genetic relationship to her. In the famed Baby M case, the birth mother’s own egg was inseminated, so she was biologically related to the baby.

When Parslow took the bench Thursday, he summarized the Johnson-Calvert case briefly, noting that this child has “arguably, three parents,” since the birth mother and the genetic mother are not the same woman.

Gilbert took that as an encouraging sign. He has argued that Johnson has parental rights over the child simply by virtue of carrying and delivering him. The Calverts contend that they are the only ones who can legally call themselves parents, since Johnson provided no genetic material.

Christian R. Van Deusen, one of the Calverts’ lawyers, said that if Johnson is held to be a legal parent, it would be difficult to decide the scope of her rights.

“Does that mean she gets visits? Does she get constant input in the child’s life? Does it mean she is just entitled to periodic reports, like, ‘Hi, he’s doing fine, he’s playing Little League?’ ” he said.

Harold F. LaFlamme, the baby’s court-appointed lawyer, said even more profound civil rights questions would be broached if the judge rules that all three adults have parental rights.

“I’d be very concerned with the rights of the birth mother during pregnancy, as well as those of the genetic parents after the birth,” he said. “Would it mean that the genetic parents get to dictate what a surrogate mother eats and drinks during pregnancy, or whether she takes drugs, or if she can travel? What if she wants an abortion? Would they have the power to stop her?”

LaFlamme wondered aloud if a three-parent ruling would mean that the surrogate mother could wield intrusive power over the lives of the genetic parents, demanding a role in such decisions as where they live, whether the child is circumcised or whether he attends private school.

“The whole world will be looking to see if you can bifurcate motherhood,” LaFlamme said. “The question comes down to this: Is providing the genetic material enough to confer motherhood on someone, or is carrying and delivering a child enough to confer it, or both, meaning that the child has two mothers?”

Gilbert put it simply:

“The judge can look reality squarely in the face and recognize that this child has three biological parents, or he can turn his head.”

Gilbert said that Johnson is confident that “the day will come” when she is recognized as the infant’s mother, either through a court ruling or through legislation she hopes will be enacted in Sacramento.

Steiner advocated a quick resolution to the dispute. He said that on Saturday night, the first night the baby spent with the Calverts, Crispina Calvert “slept next to the baby with her hand on his back.” He said that kind of uncertainty and stress must be ended to create a secure environment for the infant.