There has been a "potential" client circulating a question about whether, in his divorce, he can seek to exclude his wife as a legal parent to his 11 year old son because the child was conceived using a donor egg. The wife carried the child. He is seeking to exclude her as a legal parent, gain sole custody and not have to pay child support. He had been told that the birth certificate, on which she appears, makes her a parent and he doubted that. Some of you may have heard from this fellow this morning.
I wanted to comment on this due to the assisted reproduction issue. The wife is clearly a legal mother. Under the NJ UPA and In re T.J.S., a woman who gives birth is a parent. There is no exclusion for woman who gives birth to a child not genetically related to her (unless she is a surrogate under the new GC Act). Although our artificial insemination law has not been updated to exclude an egg donor as a parent, as it does for sperm donors, it is clear that this woman is a legal parent to the child. The birth certificate itself is not proof of parentage (see T.J.S.), so the advice he received was not correct that the birth certificate was proof.
I have seen a growing number of these claims arising, where divorcing parents are seeking to use genetic links against the other in custody matters - its very distressing to see that and I urge everyone who does custody or divorce work to become
very familiar with the UPA as a "defense" against these types of claims.
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Debra Guston Esq.
Glen Rock NJ
(201)447-6660
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