Daughter of Sperm Donor Not His by Law, Panel Rules
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NEW ORLEANS — A 4 1/2-year-old girl who was conceived after her father’s death with a sample of his sperm isn’t his child under law, a Social Security panel ruled, denying benefits to the youngster.
“An individual cannot acknowledge paternity of a child who is not yet in existence,” the Social Security Administration appeals council said in a ruling issued Monday in Washington.
The council overturned a ruling by an administrative law judge who found in May that Judith Christine Hart is clearly Edward William Hart Jr.’s child, that she was born at his wish and that she should receive survivor’s benefits.
Nancy Hart, the girl’s mother, plans to ask a federal judge to overturn the council decision.
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