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American Morning
Surrogate Mother Takes Parents to Court
Aired August 13, 2001 - 09:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: This next story makes you ask the question that what would seem to be a very simple question, what is a parent? A surrogate mother in California is taking the couple that hired her to court because she says they are backing out of the deal.
To tell us more about that, here's Jean Elle of our affiliate KNTV.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIANE MICHELSEN, BERMAN'S LAWYER: There was never any possibility that these children would be abandoned. Mrs. Erickson, Helen's attorney, knew this.
JEAN ELLE, KNTV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): But a lawsuit has been filed against the Berkeley couple for breaking their contract with surrogate mother Helen Beasley. The deal apparently went sour when the couple found out Beasley was carrying twins. The 26-year-old British woman says that leaves the kids without a family.
HELEN BEASLEY, SURROGATE MOTHER: The ideal solution is that, you know, the babies are born here and I'm allowed to find new parents for them.
ELLE: Charles Wheeler and Martha Berman's attorney insists they already have a home.
MICHELSEN: There has been and continues to be a fully qualified couple who is ready, willing and able to immediately accept custody of these children by taking over the surrogacy contract.
ELLE: Michelsen says Beasley and her attorney are using the unborn children for their personal gain.
MICHELSEN: It is unfathomable to us, given these circumstances, that Helen's attorney, Ms. Erickson, would choose to ignore a situation that has a solution already in place and exploit the situation.
ELLE: A situation that will affect the lives of two unborn babies.
(END VIDEOTAPE) KAGAN: And to help us understand more about the situation and the ethical dilemmas involved, our guest is Sanford Bernardo. He is an adoption specialist. He also specializes in in vitro fertilization cases. He is joining us from New York.
Sanford, good morning. Thanks for joining us.
SANFORD BERNARDO, ADOPTION ATTORNEY: Hi, Daryn. How are you?
KAGAN: I'm doing OK. I'm just trying to follow the story here. Really we're talking about four parents for two babies because you have the mother who originally wanted to start the surrogacy, the surrogacy mother, but an egg donor and then the father, who's the sperm donor, as well. Is that right?
BERNARDO: This is a very complex situation. I mean I think we ought to boil it down a little bit. This is what's called a gestational surrogacy arrangement, or a third party reproductive contract. In this case, Beasley, Helen Beasley has no biological relationship to the children. The donor...
KAGAN: She's the vessel, so to speak?
BERNARDO: Well, yes. She, we can consider her a landlord, if you really want to talk about it in, you know, terms like that. A donor egg was used. In gestational surrogacy, it's either the egg from the intended mother, not this way -- in this case, however, a donor egg is used and you're right, sperm from the father is used. And in vitro fertilization is the technique that's used in this case, the scientific technique.
KAGAN: And then in this contract between these three parties, apparently there was the clause about selective reduction. The couple who was going to get the children saying if you have more than one fetus, you have to basically have an abortion of one of the fetuses.
BERNARDO: If it's possible to...
KAGAN: Is that standard?
BERNARDO: It's not standard in any other state other than California and perhaps just a few others. I mean we're talking about a contract in contemplation of abortion. When you have an if very frequently there are multiple fetuses and that's what was contemplated in this case and that's exactly what happened.
The problem here, what's unclear at this point is whether or not there was an oral agreement for an abortion after, not, no abortion after a 12 week period of time. Up till eight weeks, she didn't know that she was carrying twins, Helen Beasley. In an eight week time frame she found out that she was carrying twins. Apparently she notified Wheeler and Berman, the intended parents, and on week 13, according to the court records, she was told that they are not interested, they're going to walk away from this, go ahead and do what you want.
She obviously doesn't want to go through with an abortion.
KAGAN: Which seems so incredible to so many people. Sanford, explain to me legally what makes a parent in this case? Who is the parents of these two children?
BERNARDO: Well...
KAGAN: Who are the parents?
BERNARDO: In this case it's unclear. I mean we've got a rent a womb situation going on. Helen Beasley is interested in carrying for nine months in exchange for a few. Berman and Wheeler are looking to rent space, you might say, for a nine month period and a contract was arranged between the two of them. In California that's an enforceable legal agreement. In New York, for instance, it's actually a criminal agreement. No court will enforce it and it's criminal.
So we don't know who is the parent here, although we do know that Beasley has no biological relationship with the children.
KAGAN: Well, and even though this is a modern problem you could go to an old-fashioned solution. Possession is nine tenths of the law right now. Beasley did have control over what happened to one of those children, at least, because it was in her womb and she chose not to have that abortion.
BERNARDO: And that's right. And although she, I think she's now six months pregnant, so we're going into the third trimester. So an abortion is just not going to happen, nor should it. What I think she wants to do is be able to have the right to select the proper adoptive parents for the children. I think that's what is going to be determined by the courts in California. And this situation hasn't come up yet in California and of course they met over the Internet at a surrogacy site. So a lot of people are going to start saying that the Internet is at fault here, which I don't think it is. This would have happened sooner or later in any form.
KAGAN: And yet a topic for another day. But just quickly, you think this one is ending up in the courts?
BERNARDO: Oh, it has to.
KAGAN: All right, we will watch it.
Thanks for helping us understand a very complicated modern fertility and parenting issue.
BERNARDO: Sure. My pleasure.
KAGAN: Sanford Bernardo from New York.
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