Over the last few weeks I have read a number of articles regarding a case in Kansas where a known donor was used by a lesbian couple where he signed papers giving up his right to the child but now the Kansas courts are requiring him to pay child support.
In short, Kansas law does not allow a same sex partner to adopt the child of their partner. Louis Sternberg's blog summarized the best how the Courts came to their decision and the reason why. It has nothing to do with their position on donor conception:
When [the birth mother] applied for state health insurance for the child, Kansas demanded to know the identity of the father. Kansas law, like New York, allows the state to seek child support on behalf of a custodial parent when that custodial parent is receiving certain state-sponsored financial benefits such as health insurance. Angela de Rocha, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department for Children and Families said “all individuals who apply for taxpayer-funded benefits through DCF are asked to cooperate with child support enforcement efforts” and that “DCF is required by statute to establish paternity and then pursue child support from the non-custodial parent.”
Sternberg's blog actually states that under Kansas law that if the insemination was done by a licensed physician (it was not here) the donor would have been held harmless.
New York law considers me the natural father to my two DI children as I was married to their mother when they were born. Now that I am not here I am paying child support. No chance for me to get our donor to help out I guess. Lucky guy.
Monica Cruz
I was amused to learn that model Monica Cruz, the actress Penelope Cruz's nearly identical younger sister, decided that she no longer wanted to wait to find the man of her dreams to start a family and turned to donor insemination. There are a lot of comments I can make to this story but many of them would get me in trouble. I wish her and her baby well.
No comments:
Post a Comment