New Clarity in Surrogacy Cases

When surrogate parenting agreements come undone, the new reproductive technology forces the courts to play the role of Solomon. With a wisdom appropriate to the assignment, the state’s 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana has applied common sense to several groundbreaking cases.

The most recent establishes that a couple, though now divorced, remain the parents of a child produced in happier times by a surrogate with donated egg and sperm. The decision resolves the immediate question, providing custody of the child to Luanne Buzzanca, a Santa Ana woman who had been left in legal limbo. A disturbing lower court ruling effectively left the child without parents at the same time it let Buzzanca’s former husband off the hook on the matter of providing support.

The appeals court decision did several important things in restoring order and sanity to this case. It granted parental status to a woman whose intention to fulfill the role of mother always was clear but who wasn’t a part of the biological reproductive process. It put a new twist on the deadbeat-dad discussion by holding a father’s feet to the fire even though he too was outside the genetic loop. The former husband now must pay support until the child is 18.

The case affirms the capacity of courts to look beyond biology in the establishment of the rights and obligations of parents. Infertile couples who want children through surrogates are provided some confidence in their rights. The ruling also should inspire clearer thinking about the debt that society owes parents who, without biological ties to a child, establish and maintain good home environments, whether together or as single parents.

The Legislature, meanwhile, should heed the court’s call to provide better guidelines on rights and responsibilities arising from surrogate parenting.