Surrogacy Advances in Connecticut

In light of the recent election and this past year of 2008, gay rights in Connecticut have clearly made memorable advances. Same-sex couples officially have the right to wed rather than accepting civil unions that carry the same rights of a married couple without the title, “married.” Connecticut joins Massachusetts as being the only two states that allow gay marriage in the entire country.

The demand for equality of gay rights in Connecticut can be exemplified in the recent case of a homosexual male couple attempting to have children via gestational surrogacy in an agreement with a married heterosexual couple.

A Texas gay couple, married in Canada as well as in Massachusetts, entered a gestational agreement with a Connecticut heterosexual married couple. Both the gay men contributed sperm in order to create a fertilized embryo with an egg from an anonymous donor. The surrogate mother became pregnant and carried two babies to term, and despite the fact that both of the men are the biological fathers of either one of the babies, they have made no plans to figure out which child is theirs.

The entire issue stems from the law in Connecticut, that when a child is born, the birth mother’s name is automatically placed on the birth certificate; however, in gestational surrogacy, a “replacement” certificate is created with the legal parents listed. Objections have been raised because of the men’s decisions to not genetically test which of the children was actually theirs.

The Connecticut Health Department holds that since there is the possible “absence of a genetic tie” between the children and the men and that “only a biological or adoptive parent should be listed on a birth certificate,” that the men should not be listed on the birth certificate as the legal parents.

This objection to allowing the two men to adopt the children fell flat when the judge accepted the declaration from both the Texan men that their sperm created the embryos, and because they planned to raise the children together as spouses, there was no need for genetic testing. This precedent has widened the avenues by which gay couples can attempt to have children of their own, as well as show the flexibility of surrogacy laws and process in Connecticut.

http://news.aol.com/article/gay-marriages-allowed-in-connecticut/241707

http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20190340&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=568860&rfi=6