Australian Judge Says that Biological Parents Must Adopt Child Carried by Surrogate

August 12, 2009

After an Australian woman found that she had cervical cancer and was going to have to undergo chemotherapy, which would render her infertile, she had some of her eggs harvested and stored. When she and her husband decided that they wanted to have children, her husband gave his sperm and an embryo was created in a laboratory.

The woman’s mother offered to be a surrogate parent and carry the embryo, then turn the child over to her daughter and son-in-law. Immediately after the birth of the child, the mother turned him over to the couple to raise. The son-in-law was listed as the father, but the grandmother was listed as the mother because she gave birth.

The couple went to a court so that they could formally adopt the child, but to their surprise, a judge ruled that not only was the mother not the mother, but also the father was not the father of the baby.