Surrogate Parenting Contracts

In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.

Google and Wikipedia just advised me that I have quoted Erasmus! “Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (October 28,[1] 1466 – July 12, 1536), sometimes known as Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist and a Catholic priest and theologian.”

I have become the proverbial “one eyed man” relative to “prebirth orders” for surrogate and biological parents in central WV. At least, when I wrote to my colleagues for help, no one had handled such a proceeding, and our Circuit Court Judge of 25 years had not done one, but I now have! The order is signed!

Fortunately, the attorney who had negotiated the “surrogacy contract” for his clients in a nearby state had done many of them, and he had found the key bit of information, a memo from our Director of the Department of Vital Statistics for the WV Department of Health and Human Resources. I followed that memo very carefully and improvised with my own touches. The “carrier” of course lives here in WV where the children are to be born.

Also fortunately, for my first surrogacy case, I stayed within the “comfort zone” of common sense and traditional values in that the biological parents are exemplary people, as are the “carrier” and her husband, and the people receiving the children (twin boys!) are the biological parents.

At least I now have a foundation to work from, in case I get another combination such as the biological child of the mother and the egg of the carrier, or the egg of the mother and donated sperm from a donor. (Note; 18 months later and I still do not have another surragate parenting case. I am still happy I got the chance to do something new. 2-27-2012; J.B.H.)

All I know is that standing next to two women, each beaming with the pride and anticipation of motherhood, one bursting with life, and the other bursting with happiness, is as thoroughly pleasant an experience as a family law attorney is likely to have.

That was brought back to me this week when I got an e-mail from a client who was warned by a midnight call that his ex-wife was plotting his demise. I hope she does not succeed. I already have a dozen or so fatalities in my practice.

My client has consented to my redacting of the PDF documents I created for this case for the benefit of other practitioners. More populous states have attorneys who have done lots of such cases. My clients are happy to help others have this joy, with less expense.

Soon, some happy parents will take their new babies home with them, with deep appreciation to the woman who carried them, and her husband who supported her decision to carry another couple’s children.

This post was written by Burton Hunter