Is a Surrogate a Mother?
A battle over triplets raises difficult questions about the ethics of the surrogacy industry and the meaning of parenthood.
By Michelle Goldberg
Slate
Feb. 15, 2016
Excerpt:
Most experts think that Cook will have a hard time convincing any court to give her the kids. Cassidy has successfully made arguments for the maternal rights of surrogates in New Jersey, but that is much friendlier legal terrain than California. “Who the parents are in this case turns on the surrogacy agreement,” says Joanna Grossman, a professor of family law at Hofstra University and co-author of Inside the Castle: Law and Family in 20th Century America. “If it’s enforceable, those are his kids. If he wants to take all three of them and give one of them up for adoption, there’s no reason he can’t do that.”