paternity

By Michele Jackson

A recent Court of Appeals ruling in Indiana has created some confusion on the Indiana Court’s view on establishing parentage in some surrogacy cases. The court ruled that a married woman who acted as a surrogate for another couple cannot petition to disestablish her maternity because it would cause the child to be “declared a child without a mother”. The issue arose In the Matter of the Paternity and Maternity of Infant T.

For the past two years in Indiana, I have been successful in petitioning paternity and maternity for an intended father and intended mother based on the case In re Paternity & Maternity of Infant R. While this case was specific to biological parents, it did not prohibit the use of the process when using egg donor or sperm donor and thus I was continually successful in using the same process. However, based upon the recent case, this option may not be possible. It appears from a strict interpretation of this case, if a donor is used, then the gestational surrogate will be the legal mother until an adoption takes place, as the state will not allow for a child to not have a legal mother. While I believe that the courts will continue to accept the petitions for paternity and maternity, even after this decision, I want to make it clear there is a more significant legal risk for intended parents using donors.

By: Amanda Glowacki

I, like many others, have a guilty habit of looking at the tabloids in line at the supermarket. A couple weeks ago I was browsing some of the celebrity tabloids and came across a headline on Kim Kardashian’s pregnancy and new boyfriend Kanye West. Per the headline, Kanye was furious that Kim’s divorce to Kris Humphries was still pending and Kanye was willing to do whatever it took to finalize the divorce before Kim delivered. Turns out that Kanye’s frustrations are valid as California, like Indiana and many other states, presumes that a married woman’s husband is the father of a newly-born child. In Indiana this presumption is codified in IC 31-14-7 which provides in part that:

A man is presumed to be a child’s biological father if: (1) the:

Articles Tagged with paternity

Indiana Court of Appeals: Surrogate can not petition to disestablish maternity

Presumption of paternity: What the tabloids are getting right.