Child Support from a Dead Sperm Donor?
Saturday / May 12, 2007
Pennsylvania man who served as sperm donor for
lesbian couple ordered to pay child support.
For background on this story, check out LifeSite which was one of the
first blogs to report it. You can download a
copy of the court's opinion in pdf format
here.
But there's more to this story which is clear once you read the court's opinion. The sperm donor had been a part of the kids' lives since their birth. He had helped to support them and encouraged them to call him "Papa." When the same-sex couple split up, the donor was granted shared legal and physical custody of the kids.
The really interesting case will be Ferguson v. McKiernan, pending in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, where a married woman promised a man she would never look to him for support if he would impregnate her. He did, her husband divorced her, and she sued the sperm donor for child support. The lower Pennsylvania court granted the request for child support.
But there's more to this story which is clear once you read the court's opinion. The sperm donor had been a part of the kids' lives since their birth. He had helped to support them and encouraged them to call him "Papa." When the same-sex couple split up, the donor was granted shared legal and physical custody of the kids.
The really interesting case will be Ferguson v. McKiernan, pending in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, where a married woman promised a man she would never look to him for support if he would impregnate her. He did, her husband divorced her, and she sued the sperm donor for child support. The lower Pennsylvania court granted the request for child support.
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