The Michigan Daily-Friday, May 19, 1978-Page 7
Can surrogate mother be paid for child?

By ELEONARA di LISCIA
Childess husband with infertile wife
wants female for test tube baby. Cauca-
sian background. Indicate fee and age. All
answers confidential.
A little more than a year ago this ad
appeared in The Daily and a number of
other area newspapers. The man who
placed it was successful in his search.
He found a woman who was willing to
serve as a surrogate mother for his
child. She was artificially inseminated
with his sperm and eventually gave bir-
th to a 10 pound, 11 ounce boy.
BUT SHE HAS yet to be paid the
money initially promised for her ser-
vices, for this radical new method of
achieving parenthoed has raised a host
of related legal questions.
The case originated when attorney
Noel Keane placed the ads for a Dear-
born couple who were unable to have
children. The woman who was to bear a
child for them was offered $10,000 for
her services, but a Wayne County
Probate judge later stated in an infor-
mal opinion that the exchange of child
for money could not take place under
current adoption laws, which say a
child cannot be directly adopted.

to adopt, the child must be given up to
an adoption agency or kept by the
biological mother.
According to Keane, these laws are
aimed at preventing a "black market"
in babies. He points out that in this case
the "adopting" father is related to the
child and therefore no adoption
procedures should be necessary. Keane
argues that in this case the baby is not
being treated as a commodity, which is
the reason for the protective adoption
laws.
LAST MONDAY Keane filed a test
case using these real circumstances,
but with fictitious names (John and
Mary Doe vs. Mary Roe) with the State
Attorney General's Office in order to
determine whether a woman can be
paid to have a child by artificial in-
semination for another couple. Keane is
adding the right to privacy as another
facet of his arguments, claiming that
the state's interest in the case does not
compel it to interfere.
Under reverse circumstances the
laws are quite different. If a woman
with an infertile husband wants to bear
a child, she can go to a sperm donor and
become artificially impregnated for $75
with no legal complications.

legal father and responsible for the
child," Keane said. "The idea of the
courts is to legitimize kids. It's recor-
ded as his child."
HOWEVER, WHEN a surrogate
mother is involved the surrogate's
name appears on the birth certificate
as mother, not the wife of the father.
Therefore it is necessary to go through
adoption procedures.
What makes the use of surrogate
mother an appealing idea is the fact
that in the state of Michigan there is a
three to four year wait for the adoption
of a white baby. Another incentive is
the maximum age limits which agen-

cies may place on adopting couples.
Finally, the child born by a surrogate
mother is genetically closer to the
couple seeking a child.
Still, if the use of a surrogate mother
becomes legally acceptable, there area
number of problems which could poten-
tially arise. The surrogate mother
might decide to keep the child and file
for child support, divorce or death
could split the couple waiting for the
child before the surrogate gives birth,
or the child might be afflicted with birth
defects and hence become unaccep-
table to the couple.
The dome of the Louisiana Super-
dome is 680feet in diameter.

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Unless a relative of the mother chooses "Ifa husband consents, then he is the
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