Matter of Baby M., 3 February 1988.
The plaintiffs, husband and wife, sought to enforce a surrogate parenting agreement under which the defendant had been impregnated with semen of the husband and had agreed to surrender any resulting child to the plaintiffs in return for money.  They also requested that the natural mother be restrained from interference with their custody of the child and that her parental rights be terminated so that the child could be adopted by the wife.  The Supreme Court of New Jersey held that surrogate parenting contracts conflicted with laws prohibiting the use of money in connection with adoptions, laws requiring proof of parental unfitness or abandonment before parental rights are terminated or adoption ordered, and laws making surrender of custody and consent to adoption revocable in private placement adoptions.  It also ruled that such contracts conflicted with state public policy.  It awarded custody of the child to the father on the grounds that it was in the child's best interest but did not sever the mother's parental rights and gave her the right to visit the child.  On 6 April 1988, the Superior Court of New Jersey ruled that the mother of the child should have liberal, unsupervised visitation rights and enjoined and restrained the parties from publicly discussing their relationship with the child or her activities and from selling movie rights without the court's approval.  On 21 January 1988, the Michigan Circuit Court for Gratiot County refused to enforce a surrogacy contract.  It declared it to be void as contrary to public policy.  See Yates vs. Keane in Family Law Reporter, Vol. 14, 9 February 1988, pp. 1160-61.
D000300:Adoption; D000569:Americas; D001519:Behavior; D002655:Child Custody; D002668:Child Rearing; D019049:Developed Countries; D007603:Jurisprudence; D008824:Michigan; D009515:New Jersey; D009656:North America; D012098:Reproduction; D012099:Reproductive Techniques; D013533:Gestational Carriers; D014481:United States
Adoption--legal aspects; Americas; Behavior; Child Custody--legal aspects; Child Rearing; Court Decision; Developed Countries; Michigan; New Jersey; North America; Northern America; Reproduction; Reproductive Technologies; Surrogate Mothers--legal aspects; United States