Baby M (born March 27, 1986) is a pseudonym used in this case. In Baby's Birth , 537 A.2d 1227, 109 NJ 396 (NJ 1988) for infants whose descendants are questionable.
In birth Baby M is a case of detention which became the first US court decision on the validity of surrogacy. William Stern signed a surrogacy agreement with Mary Beth Whitehead, whom she and his wife Elizabeth Stern discovered through a newspaper advertisement. According to the agreement, Mary Beth Whitehead will be inseminated with William Stern's sperm (making him a traditional, as opposed to a gestational, substitute), taking the pregnancy for the long term, and releasing her foster rights for William's wife Elizabeth. However, after birth, Mary Beth decided to look after the child. William and Elizabeth Stern are then required to be recognized as parents of child law.
The New Jersey court ruled that surrogacy contracts were invalid under public policy, acknowledged Mary Beth Whitehead as the official mother of the child, and ordered the Family Court to determine whether Whitehead, as mother, or Stern, as a father, should have legal custody of infants, 'conventional best interests'. Stern was granted custody, with Whitehead having a visitation right.
At birth, Mary Beth Whitehead was named Baby M. Sara Elizabeth Whitehead . He later renamed Melissa Elizabeth Stern , after William Stern was awarded a legal prisoner.
Video Baby M
Background details
In March 1984, Mary Beth Whitehead responded to an ad placed by the New York Infertility Center at Asbury Park Press looking for a woman willing to help an infertile couple have children. He dropped out of high school who married Richard Whitehead, a garbage collector, with whom he had two children, Ryan and Tuesday.
Elizabeth "Betsy" Stern is technically infertile, but has multiple sclerosis and is worried about potential pregnancy health implications, including temporary paralysis.
William "Bill" Stern and Mary Beth Whitehead entered into "surrogacy contracts," which Mary Beth said would be inseminated with Bill's sperm, take the pregnancy for the term, and give up foster care for Bill's wife, Betsy. The Sterns reportedly made their choice just by looking at his photo.
According to later terminology, Mary Beth would be considered a traditional substitute, instead of a pregnancy substitute, since she is the child's genetic mother. At that time, the technology for maternity surrogates was not commonly used.
On March 27, 1986, Mary Beth gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Sara Elizabeth Whitehead. 3 days later, Mary Beth handed the baby to Betsy and Bill, who changed her name to Melissa Elizabeth Stern. However, within 24 hours after transferring physical prisoners to Sterns, Mary Beth went to them and demanded that her baby be returned to her, allegedly threatening suicide. Mary Beth then refuses to send her baby Melissa to Sterns and leaves New Jersey, taking the baby with him. The Sterns has a frozen Whitehead family bank account and is looking for their arrest warrant.
On March 31, 1987, New Jersey Judge Judge Harvey R. Sorkow officially certified surrogacy contracts and gave Baby M rights to Sterns under the "best interests of child analysis".
On February 3, 1988, the New Jersey High Court, presided over by Supreme Court Justice Robert Wilentz, canceled the surrogacy contract as opposed to public policy but Maps Baby M
Legal significance
This case attracts a lot of attention because it shows that the possibility of third-party reproduction raises new legal and social questions about the meaning of parents and the possibility of contracting around the problem of pregnancy and childbirth.
Among other points of contention, feminists argue over whether a woman's human rights to make decisions about her own body imply the ability to contract parental rights to a child born of her, or whether acknowledging such a right will carry the risk of exploitation too big..
The discovery of the New Jersey Court that no contract could alter the legal position of a woman who gave birth to a child when the child's mother seemed to settle the question of surrogacy contract status in America, at least until technological advancements enabled a pregnancy substitute - where a woman could give birth and give birth a child who has no genetic relationship - reopens questions in many jurisdictions.
At least in New Jersey, however, M. Baby's verdict continues as a precedent. In 2009, the New Jersey High Court ruled that In re-Infant M applies to surrogate mother as well as to traditional womb cases, at A.G.R. v. D.R.H & amp; S.H. . The intended parent is a homosexual male couple. They created the embryo using an anonymous donor egg cell and sperm from one of the husbands. Sister of another husband took the embryo for a long time and initially gave birth to the boy and her husband, but a year later confirmed her own custody even though she was not genetically related to the child. Judge Francis Schultz relies on In Baby M to recognize the gestational mother as the mother of the law of the child. However, subsequent decisions in 2011 were granted full custody to biological fathers.
Aftermath
After reaching adulthood in March 2004, Melissa Stern officially ended Mary Beth's custody and inaugurated Elizabeth's birth through the adoption process. When the controversy subsided, Whitehead divorced her husband, remarried to Dean Gould, and had two more children, Austin and Morgan.
"I love my family very much and I am very happy with them," Melissa told a reporter for New Jersey Monthly referring to Sterns in 2004. "I am so glad I am finally with them I love them , they are my best friends all over the world, and that's all I have to say about it. "
Mother, Ms. Whitehead, wrote a book about his experience in 1989.
In January 2011, a British court ruled that a woman who gave birth to a daughter under an informal surrogate agreement with a spouse who had no children would keep the baby.
In popular culture
An ABC Network miniseries, entitled Simple Baby M , was broadcast in May 1988. The miniseries starred JoBeth Williams as Mary Beth Whitehead, John Shea as William, Bruce Weitz as Mary Beth's husband, Rick, Robin Strasser as Elizabeth and Dabney Coleman as Gary Skoloff. Miniseri received seven Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Miniseries, who did not win. Williams, Shea, Weitz, and Coleman all received nominations for their performances, but only Shea won. Williams was also nominated for the Golden Globe for her performance.
In 1989, Mary Beth Whitehead published her own book about her experience, A Mother's Story: The Truth About Baby Cases .
In 1988, artist Martha Rosler made the video "Born For Sale: Martha Rosler Reading The Strange Case of Baby M".
Mary Beth Whitehead was referenced in the Seinfeld episode "The Bottle Deposit", when Jerry's mechanic (played by Brad Garrett) stole Jerry's car after she felt that Jerry was not taking care of her properly.
References
Further reading
- Chesler, Phyllis. Sacred Bond: Inheritance of Baby M. (Vintage, 1989)
- McDonald, Christie. "Changing the Facts of Life: The Case of Baby M." [Substance (1991): 31-48. in JSTOR
- Sanger, Carol. "Developing markets in infant manufacturing: in the case of baby M." Harvard. Journal of Law & amp; Gender 30 (2007): 67 online
- Whitehead, Mary Beth, and Loretta Schwartz-Nobel. Mother's story: truth about Baby Case M (St. Martin Press, 1989), Memoir by mother
![Fancam] Nam Tae Hyun of WINNER(ìë ë¨íí) BABY BABY @M ...](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u3T89qXw_-QiBuFXD99igp7TddCRYBJuM7YrRps9VepHFGakSMK_ecRVR8pGsZS1Xrmpu3LWb3Geez0vSUsUiWivirEtHblD-Lx4zxVl-55__a9TFMXKJaS86Sm1ZskZx0tZLGFygSZw=s0-d "Fancam] Nam Tae Hyun of WINNER(ìë ë¨íí) BABY BABY @M ...")
External links
- Summary of the Baby M case
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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